Saint-Émilion

... ultimate breakfast cocktail.

Oh, now, that involves blood orange and Saint-Emilion-

[laughs]

... doesn't it? Which we...

why do you say that? I mean, do you know that? Here, honest question.

Are you saying that because of AI? Are you saying it because of like the natural way that the earth works? Were you not with me at Saint-Emilion, which was established in like 1300? Okay,

yes, you have that.

And okay, what's the similarities between the pyramids and that old, old village we saw, Saint-Emilion? What's the similarities between them? What are they built out of?

Stone?

Big old fucking rock.

what you're talking about.

I think there's a lot of stuff around the pyramids that they're finding, right? Not necessarily.

[laughs]

... to a wine grower who is typical of a new wave of Bordeaux producers, Yann Todeschini of Château Mongó in Saint-Émilion.

Mm.

On, uh, I think we talked to him pretty much on everything, from amphoraa to low sulfur, to biodynamics, to WhatsApp.

I will leave you with that.

Tomorrow, we head south, towards the Graves and Saint-Émilion, to see the harvest in full swing.

Until then, bonjour, and happy travels.

[outro music]

This is the season of the vendange, the grape harvest.

The vineyards of the Médoc, Graves and Saint-Emilion are waking up and the entire region seems to be holding its breath in anticipation of the crush.

Even though I haven't made it out to the chateaus yet, the energy is palpable in the wine bars and the markets.

I spent the morning flannering through the Chartrens district.

It was probably late March rather than early April in 2004, which is when, ridiculously, we are supposed to rate these wines when they're only six months old.

And I got to the Saint-Emilion tasting, where everything was blind,

and I came across this wine that just didn't seem like wine to me.

It seemed more like port, and it really did taste as though it had been from shrivelled grapes.

[laughs]

No, listen, we went to Saint-Émilion, that little medieval town.

Yeah.

And we visited the Saint-Émilion Church, which is a monolith.

Oh yeah, it's all carved out of one big-

Rock

I could have told you one of 20 things that are iconic things to do in France.

Tasting a freshly opened oyster at Narbonne Market or a very special wine tasting at St. Emilion that you have on the St. Louis itinerary.

There's a hundred things that I could say.

I think choosing the bridge, it's a moment where you kind of revert to being a child for a moment.

And I think you used to live somewhere where they are very famous for a version of macarons.

Yes, when you go to Bordeaux and you may go to the town of Saint-Emilion, which is a fantastic winemaking town that you should definitely visit if you're out there, you will find macarons de Saint-Emilion.

And you will be shocked because they do not look, taste, or really resemble at all what we have in front of us.

Now, they are not a sandwich cookie.

That sounds pretty gay to me.

Not now.

So for the macaron to evolve from what you saw in Saint-Emilion or from this amaretti kind of style thing, we really do have to go to Paris.

And we're looking, you know, as late as the 17th century, we're still seeing a more amaretti style macaron.