Chateau recommendations for St. Emilion and Pauillac

My wife and I are spending a few days in Bordeaux this June. We will spend 2 nights in St. Emilion and a night in Pauillac. During the day we are hoping to walk or bike to various Chateaux for tastings and are looking for recommendations on which to book. We don’t have that much experience with Bordeaux wines, but tend to lean towards fuller body Cabs and Zins for our usual preferences. If any of you have had particularly good experiences at any of the Chateaux in the area would really appreciate the feedback. Thanks

there are a lot of trip reports / itineraries on the bwe board on that topic

http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/viewforum.php?f=4

although i’m sure you’ll get plenty of great suggestions here too

it sounds like an great expedition

I see that you didn’t include Pomerol in your request. However, it is only a mere 10 minute drive from Saint Emilion. In any case, if you decide to go to Pomerol, a few years ago, the wife and I had great experiences at Vieux Chateau Certan and La Conseillante. They are family-run and so it is likely that a member of the management team would be family and that he/she would end up showing you around and conducting the tasting. In addition to sending an email request, I had to call one of the wineries to confirm my arrival, a few days before the tasting.

We also enjoyed our tastings at Chateau Haut Brion in Pessac-Leognan. This was a more organized/formal tastings and winery tour with one of the trained staff. All correspondence were done via email.

If you’re doing your own driving, Bordeaux and even the Northern Medoc, can be a traffic nightmare, especially around the rush hour. So make sure to allow time so that you don’t compromise your appointments.

Thanks for the link to the Bordeaux message board. I didn’t realize there was one. We are open to going to Pomerol though we primarily wanted to walk or bike to the Chateaux. I’ll try and map it out to see if that’s feasible. Does anyone know of any Chateaux who will sell direct to consumer if we want to bring a few bottles home? I know that’s rare in the region…

Chateau Clinet in Pomerol is a very nice visit, no fee unless you try some aged wine.

For Pauillac:

*Pontet Canet- Very modern style, state of art equipment and wine making technology, no cost tour and tasting with wine available to buy.

*Lynch bages- impressive facility and tour, different from the rest, I think it was a 15 euro tasting charge, nice wine and gift shop on premises, some decent buys.

*Mouton Rothschild -1st growth, approx. 45 euro fee, great tour of property, museum, and tasting of one of the finest wines in the world.

Pichon Baron-one of my two favorite wines, never been, it was closed when we visited

Pichon Lalande-my other favorite, never been , it was closed when we visited