Private Guests at Chateau Suduiraut

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Private Guests at Chateau Suduiraut

Private Guests at Chateau Suduiraut

30 October - 3 November 2006

This is a rare opportunity indeed! An invitation to stay at the glorious 17th Château Suduiraut, deep in Sauternes. This is not a hotel, but a private wine estate which has in the last couple of years had some of the outbuildings converted into extremely comfortable private guest accommodation, which is not available to the general public.

Apart, of course, from the renown of its excellent wines, the chateau itself is what everyone would imagine a traditional French chateau to look like, complete with turrets and lake. The chateau overlooks its own fine park, laid out by the great landscape gardener, Le Notre, who created no less than the gardens at Versailles! The beautiful wrought iron balcony above the front door came from the Hotel de Richelieu in Paris.

Suduiraut is in the commune of Preignac, and its special location means that botrytis cinerea (the famous ‘noble rot’) sets into the grapes from late September onwards. These are picked over the autumn, individually, in waves, so at the date of our visit it is not out of the question that we could see some of this meticulous harvesting going on. The vineyards adjoin those of its illustrious neighbour, Château d’Yquem and we will drop in here for a brief visit here during our stay.

Over the course of our five days we have top level visits planned to the major appellations of the region and most of the top five chateaux. As with all our Reserve Collection Tours there is just a small party, so that visits are more personalised and intimate.

We meet up in Bordeaux after lunch on Monday and our first afternoon of visits begins in the Graves to Premier Cru (Pessac) Haut-Brion, whose wines have continually ranked at the highest levels. Indeed, it was the only chateau outside the Médoc to be featured in the 1855 classification. We will also taste La Mission Haut-Brion. We continue on to our splendid base at Château Suduiraut.

We will dine on three evenings at Suduiraut and the wines served with our dinners will come from a selection of chateaux including Château Pichon-Longueville and Petit-Village. We will almost certainly enjoy Port from Noval and Tokaji from Disznoko too, as these properties share the same owner.

Our day in St Emilion will include a visit to one of the only two chateaux in St Emilion to be classified Premier Grand Cru Classé A, Cheval Blanc, and with a private invitation to lunch in the elegant and privileged setting of Château Canon.

When we travel up to the Médoc, our rendez-vous are with Châteaux Latour and Margaux (both Premier Cru) and for a splendid private lunch with the charming Barton family at Château Léoville-Barton. On our final morning we will learn about the work of the Négociants with a visit to one of the top merchants.

As Bordeaux is now easily reachable from around the country by regional flights, we leave the choice of travel arrangements to you so you can extend your stay visiting the local area.