Beyond Wine: Seven Things to Do in Bordeaux
Planning a visit to Bordeaux? Need something to do that doesn’t involve wine? Here are seven things to do in Bordeaux.
#1: Visit the Châteaux
Visiting Bordeaux without visiting any châteaux is like going to Disneyland and not riding any of the rides. Even if wine is not really your thing, visiting the châteaux is a great opportunity to venture outside of the city and learn about the various styles, categories and sub-regions of Bordeaux.
My recommendation is to rent a car and make individual appointments with châteaux in the Médoc instead of booking a wine tour. When I was planning my trip, some of the prices I was quoted for Bordeaux wine tours were mind-boggling. I was quoted $1100 for one day for one person. I ended up choosing one Médoc wine tour based on good reviews, but I regretted it because the châteaux and the tastings were not very memorable, and I would have preferred to have visited producers of my own choosing. My view is that Bordeaux wines, and in particular, certain producers, are very personal to individuals, and your time will be better spent visiting individual producers you were curious about to get to know them better.
I did book a visit to Château d’Yquem, which was a bucket list dream for me, and it was my favorite wine experience of my trip.
One type of tour I would recommend, however, is a biking wine tour of Saint-Émilion. The medieval town of Saint-Émilion and the surrounding vineyards are stunning, and cycling through them is a breathtaking experience. At the recommendation of one of my tasting group friends in New York, I booked an excellent e-bike tour with Rustic Vines, and I would say that the tasting experiences I had with Rustic Vines were markedly better than the ones I had in the Médoc. Although I would normally say that e-bikes are cheating, as my tour was a few days after my marathon, I was grateful to have a little push up the hills.
#2 - Visit a wine store
Bordeaux is renowned for its historic châteaux, but the wine stores are just as captivating! As I noted above, I was not particularly excited about the wines I tasted on my Médoc wine tour, so as soon as I hopped off the minivan, I made a beeline for one of the top wine stores in Bordeaux, L’Intendant.
L’Intendant is located by the opera house in Bordeaux City and is one of the two major wine shops in Bordeaux owned by the negociant, Duclot. Badie, the other wine shop owned by Duclot, carries wines from other regions of the world, but L'Intendant is five stories wall-to-wall of Bordeaux.
The Moueix family, which owns the esteemed Château Pétrus, owns Duclot, and as the store is under negociant ownership, the prices are as close to direct prices as you can get from a wine store.
At great wine stores, I always ask for help because the people at the wine store know their products the best. The man assisting me at the wine store was so gracious and knowledgeable, and I felt like I learned so much about Bordeaux wines through our conversation. I was able to ask him questions about his thoughts on the major châteaux and the different vintages, and he gave me an extremely personal perspective on Bordeaux wines, what a treat!
I wanted to buy (a) a Left Bank wine from a leading château to commemorate the Marathon du Médoc, (b) a Right Bank wine and (c) a white Bordeaux, and I ended up buying:
2011 Pichon Baron (Pauillac) - The marathon started in Pauillac, and Château Pichon Baron was the first major château I ran by. Their iconic griffins symbolize strength and power, which I definitely needed to get through the race, and I remember being so excited to see the estate. Pichon Baron is a 2nd growth wine in the 1855 classification and often considered a "super second" château.
2011 Providence (Pomerol) - I wanted something different that I could not get easily in New York, and the 2012 vintage was the last wine of Providence, as it was brought under the ownership of Château La Fleur-Pétrus, also of the Moueix family. From vineyards of less than 3 hectares and no longer in production, this is a collector's wine due to its rarity.
2016 Château Lespault-Martillac (Pessac-Léognan) - Oak-aged Bordeaux Blanc from Pessac-Léognan is one of my favorite types of white wine, and this château is under the same management and ownership of the famed Domaine de Chevalier. When the wine store guy told me that the price was only 23 EUR, I almost snatched it out of his hands.
Total spend: $248 - Highway robbery in this economy.
#3: Sample all the canalés
Canalés (also spelled “cannalés”) are small caramelized cakes made of flour, egg yolks, vanilla, caramelized sugar and sometimes rum. They are a Bordeaux specialty, and as soon as I dropped off my bags in my hotel, I went on a light jog around the city to shake out my legs from the long flight and train ride and ran around tasting canalés from different shops. The two big establishments in Bordeaux for canalés are Baillardran and La Toque Cuivrée, and each one has multiple stores located throughout the city. I was a fan of both establishments, and from my personal observation, La Toque Cuivrée canalés have a more dense, chewy, mochi-like texture than those from Baillardran.
A fun fact I learned on one of my wine tours was that these tasty treats have a historic origin linked to wine production. Fining is a wine production technique where producers add a substance to the wine that will bind to and draw out unwanted substances in the wine, and egg whites were historically (and sometimes still are) used to fine Bordeaux wines. Canalés were a way to use the leftover egg yolks from the fining process! Yum!
#4: Check out some wine bars
Bordeaux has some of the best wine lists I have ever seen. Not only do the bars and restaurants have a deep bench of Bordeaux wines, but some wine bars and restaurants have a huge selection of major international wines.
After drinking copious amounts of red wine each day, I felt like I needed to lighten things up, and I had some awesome rose and white wines I had wanted to try, and the prices for some bottles were even less than the retail prices I would pay for the wines at wine stores in New York.
I only had five days in Bordeaux, two of which were occupied by the Marathon du Médoc, but here are a couple of the wine bars I enjoyed during my stay:
Aux Quatre Coins du Vin - When I asked the man helping me at L’Intendant what his favorite wine bar in Bordeaux, this bar was his first suggestion. This unique bar has multiple stations of wine taps featuring wines from all over the world, and you insert a special key card, choose the amount of wine you would like to purchase, fill your glass and then pay only for what you consumed at the end of your visit. In addition to this by-the-glass option, the wine bar has an entire book of wines from all over the world.
L’Univerre - This restaurant has excellent food and is apparently where the grand cru ballers like to spend their money in Bordeaux. Check out the insane lineup below of the bottles that one table ordered on a Monday night. My jaw dropped when I saw the bottles.
#5: Visit a Farmer’s Market
Most cities in France do not have a lot going on during Sundays, and many châteaux in Bordeaux are closed to visitors on Sundays, but Marché Bio des Quais is an outdoor farmers market along the Quai des Chartrons that is open on Sundays. Grab a cup of coffee or a freshly squeezed juice and meander through the rows of interesting food stalls, local items and fresh, briny oysters.
#6: Eat all the oysters
I always make a point to get oysters when I am in France, but Aquitaine oysters are the best oysters I have had in France.
In Bordeaux, oysters are served in their own sea brine with just a wedge of lemon. You really don’t need anything else because these oysters are juicy and flavorful on their own.
You can take day trips to visit the oyster-producing areas outside of Bordeaux, which are protected under under PGIs (Protected Geographical Indication), just like wine, and taste the oysters right at the source. However, if you are short on time like I was and cannot make it out there during your stay, you can enjoy local oysters in Bordeaux!
Where I enjoyed these little pearls of joy in Bordeaux:
(1) La Boite a Huîtres - Post up on the sidewalk, order a glass of white wine and enjoy the views of the city passing you by.
(2) Au Bistrot - Based on the recommendation of a fellow wine lover who had lived in Bordeaux for many years, I had my post-race celebratory dinner at Au Bistrot. They have excellent dishes, but these oysters stole the show and were the best out of all of the oysters I had in Bordeaux.
(3) Marché Bio des Quais - Each end of the market has stands selling plates of oysters and wine to wash them down with while you enjoy views of the Quai.
(4) Marathon du Médoc - I probably could have had a slightly shorter finishing time if I didn't stop to eat 3 oysters, but they were so good! You must run at least 23 miles to get them, but they are so worth it!
Tip: Oysters are numbered in inverse relation to their size (i.e., the largest oysters will have the number 1).
What to pair with oysters in Bordeaux? A crisp Bordeaux Blanc!
#7: Go shopping
I confess that I am not a big shopper when I travel. I usually don’t care about bringing back souvenirs, and I usually only purchase wine, spirits or other local food products. However, I always feel very inspired by French fashion, so I usually make an exception in France. With the longest shopping street in Europe - Rue Sainte Catherine - at 1,200 meters long, Bordeaux is the perfect city for fashion lovers.
In addition to major international fashion houses, the shopping district has lots of interesting boutique stores. I love French jewelry, and I started a tradition of always buying a ring for myself to memorialize my travels in France. I wandered through a few different stores to find a piece that spoke to me, and on Rue des Remparts, I found an amazing independent boutique, Aurelie Joliff, which has its little workshop upstairs. At Aurelie Joliff, I found some beautiful pieces to remember my first, and certainly not my last, visit to the wonderful city of Bordeaux.
