Jewel of Bordeaux's right bank, St. Emilion

St. Emilion's cathedral tower in the evening light

You can only see the tower of the cathedral when you approach St. Emilion, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as the town itself is mostly in a small valley.  This is another charming medieval town in the midst of some of France's most famous wine chateaux and vineyards, home to about 2000 people.  It, too, is filled with tourists--we eased carefully by them through the tiny, cobblestone streets as we drove to our hotel.

tower of St. Emilion's ancient fortifications

During Roman times, the area was also covered with vineyards, though probably not of the quality you find here today.  Since it's a limestone region, the Romans carved large quarries underneath the surface rock, forming caves that are now used to store wine barrels and bottles.  No doubt, slaves were the laborers for the Roman builders, who chiseled out the blocks of stone on three sides and then soaked wedges of wood with water to split off each block from the mother stone.

wine cave in Roman quarry

We visited one winery, Chateau Cardinal Villemaurine, at the upper end of the town of St. Emilion. The owner provided an excellent tour of his caves along with a fascinating commentary on winemaking in this region. Chateau Cardinal has several vineyards and makes different wines at each location because each area has different soils and growing conditions (terroir).

Don imagining a great bottle of wine

In this winery, they blend cabernet and merlot, but don't actually mix the wines until just before they bottle them. We saw vintages dating back to 1969 resting inside the caves.  They do use sulfides in the winemaking process, but plow between rows with horses and fertilize organically. This particular vineyard is 6 hectares (15 acres) while their largest vineyard is 40 hectares.

vineyards above St. Emilion

We walked through St. Emilion this morning and just kept walking for about 5 miles through the chateaux and vineyards.  The grapes are setting on the vines, so many of the vineyards had people in each row, pruning off the excess fruit in order to improve the quality of the remaining grapes.  This is a big area for bicycle tours.  We stopped for lunch at a small boulangerie for quiche and chocolate--along with cyclists studying their maps as they munched their snacks.