LVMH's new wine and spirits e-commerce site brings the taste of France's countryside to your table. 

At Ch&acirc;teau d&rsquo;Yquem, the 15th-century estate nestled into southern Bordeaux&rsquo;s rolling green&nbsp;fields, it&rsquo;s the ugliest grapes that give the sweetest wine. Purplish-yellow like the vivid hues of a&nbsp;fading bruise, the fungus-festered fruits hang from the vines shriveled and carpeted in a thin&nbsp;layer of grayish fuzz. One of Mother Nature&rsquo;s strangest surprises, this mold turns to gold. These&nbsp;infected grapes are the secret behind one of the world&rsquo;s most coveted sweet white wines,&nbsp;Ch&acirc;teau d&rsquo;Yquem, the only wine in the Sauternes 1855 appellation with the distinction of&nbsp;Premier Cru Sup&eacute;rieur.

Our private afternoon in the ch&acirc;teau was part of a grander tour of the region dreamt up by&nbsp;<a href="http://clos19.com/">Clos19</a>, a new venture launched by&nbsp;Stephanie Watine Arnault, which combines exclusive&nbsp;access to maisons and chateaux in the LVMH portfolio (Stephanie is LVMH&nbsp;CEO Bernard&nbsp;Arnault&rsquo;s niece) with a curated approach to&nbsp;gastronomy and travel. An entirely private visit and&nbsp;access to&nbsp;those who manage the estate, for example, at Ch&acirc;teau&nbsp;d&rsquo;Yquem, outside of a Clos19&nbsp;experience, is available only by invitation. We tasted a wide range of different d&rsquo;Yquem&nbsp;vintages, as well as the Chateau&rsquo;s younger progeny Y, pronounced ee-grek, a dryer white blend&nbsp;that the house introduced in 1959. This&nbsp;elegant, energetic, and enigmatic wine is much paler&nbsp;than the unmistakable amber hue of the house&rsquo;s namesake ambrosia.&nbsp;That afternoon, the&nbsp;angled October light caught d&rsquo;Yquem&rsquo;s rich yellow color like a fish hook in an eye.

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHEVAL_BLANC-187.jpg

It was a thrill to take a walk in the fields to see where these ugly-duckling grapes grow. Plucking&nbsp;the desiccated fruits from the vine and pressing their woolly skins into your tongue, a rush of&nbsp;adrenaline accompanies putting something that looks absolutely rotten between your lips. It stirs&nbsp;up the same sort of flutter in your chest that comes right before you jump off a cliff into an&nbsp;ocean. It&rsquo;s consciousness-expanding, too, realizing something which looks so foul could&nbsp;possibly taste so heavenly.

 
The phenomenon known as &ldquo;noble rot,&rdquo; found only in the appellation from where Sauternes&nbsp;derive, sees early-morning fog drifting across the vineyard rows, creating the perfect conditions&nbsp;for this hyperlocal fungus to thrive. Sucking water from their host grapes, a mix of S&eacute;millon and&nbsp;Sauvignon blanc varieties, this dehydrating botrytis impresses a unique route to high-sugar&nbsp;content. While the sugariness of other sweet wines comes from a late harvest, the infected&nbsp;grapes transformed into Sauternes like d&rsquo;Yquem are plucked from the vines around late&nbsp;September to early October, ensuring a nectar sweet but not cloying.&nbsp;

Château d’Yquem

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHATEAU_D'YQUEM-(dragged)-1-4.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHATEAU_D'YQUEM-(dragged)-3-1.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHATEAU_D'YQUEM-(dragged)-3-4.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHATEAU_D'YQUEM-8.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHATEAU_D'YQUEM-10.jpg

Maintaining the house lives up to its 300-year-old winemaking reputation, Pierre Lurton, from&nbsp;one of Bordeaux&rsquo;s most famed wine families, heads operations at Ch&acirc;teau d&rsquo;Yquem. He&rsquo;s also&nbsp;the winemaker at Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc, about an hour&rsquo;s drive away, in the Saint-&Eacute;milion&nbsp;appellation. We were fortunate enough to visit Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc and meet him (a visit and&nbsp;encounter which is the exception rather than the rule). It was there at Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc on&nbsp;the property adorned with red roses, that Lurton gave us an intimate audience. With a rugged&nbsp;square jaw and a&nbsp;charming French accent, the winemaker is a natural raconteur. He had one&nbsp;story about a fox terrier latching itself on to the cuff of someone&rsquo;s trousers, another about when&nbsp;he first showed up on the doorstep of Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc. Interviewing for a job there at only&nbsp;32, they noted his family name was so famous, maybe it&rsquo;s possible, they suggested, he could&nbsp;use his mother&rsquo;s maiden name. He could, he offered, but his mother&rsquo;s name is Lafite. The irony,&nbsp;of course, is that Lafite is another of Bordeaux&rsquo;s oldest winemaking families.&nbsp;Though named after a white horse, Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc is a red wine, primarily a mix of&nbsp;Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Lurton, who says he favors picking the Merlot early and the Cab&nbsp;late, describes the resulting elixir&rsquo;s tannins as &ldquo;like cashmere.&rdquo; With the distinction of Premier&nbsp;Grand Cru Classe A, Cheval Blanc is the most sought after Saint-&Eacute;milion and its 1947 vintage is&nbsp;celebrated as perhaps the&nbsp;greatest wine in the world. In their constant pursuit of perfection, over&nbsp;the last decade, the house underwent a major renovation of its winery, soliciting French&nbsp;architect Christian de Portzamparc to build a state-of-the-art facility. While its modern concrete&nbsp;design juxtaposes the historic ch&acirc;teau, its sinuous design imitates the gentle hills of the&nbsp;surrounding pastoral landscape. Inside the cellar, the concrete tanks built for aging fermenting&nbsp;the grapes, echo these same curves.

Château Cheval Blan

cheval.jpg

cheval1.jpg

cheval2.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHEVAL_BLANC-73.jpg

CLOS_19_EXPERIENCE_CHEVAL_BLANC-117.jpg

The diversity of terroir encompassed in the 100-acre vineyard, including eleven different types&nbsp;of soil, is one of the factors that goes into making Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc such an outstanding&nbsp;wine. When Lurton first became the house&rsquo;s winemaker, his uncle told him the terroir is so good,&nbsp;even if you make many mistakes, the wine will still probably turn out alright. He laughs&nbsp;recounting the story of familial teasing. But of course, the extreme attention to detail in Lurton&rsquo;s 
winemaking process minimizes the risk of error. The decision for when to pick grapes in a&nbsp;particular plot of vineyard land, for instance, is left for the very last minute to ensure the harvest&nbsp;has exactly the desirable sugars, aromatics, and tannins. The workers who pick these grapes by&nbsp;hand are informed only the night before by text message&mdash;another example of the immersion of&nbsp;tradition and modernity at Ch&acirc;teau Cheval Blanc.

 
All the while stimulated by these storied lessons on winemaking, the expansiveness of the&nbsp;French countryside&rsquo;s seemingly infinite fields of green puts one unassailably at ease. The days&nbsp;and nights were filled with countless&nbsp;highlights: The morning fog on the lake just after sunrise at&nbsp;Domaine des Etangs&mdash;an 11th-century ch&acirc;teau oozing with rustic elegance in Bordeaux-neighboring Massignac, or the bottle of smokey 1998 Dom Ruinart we shared the night&nbsp;before.

The earthly smell of the pond at Les Sources de Caudalie, or the rejuvenating salt water pools&nbsp;at the Bordeaux property&rsquo;s famed spa. Clos19&rsquo;s tour was curated for the mind and soul, the&nbsp;palate and psyche. It was the kind of multi-sensorial experience that urged you to put your&nbsp;smartphone away and revel in the moment, but still there was the perfect dish for&nbsp;Instagramming, foie gras in the shape of a kumquat at Domaine des Etangs&rsquo;s Dyades&nbsp;restaurant, as delicious as it was photogenic.

 
Amidst, all the champagne and caviar, the exclusive access and enviable vintages, there was&nbsp;one small detail on the trip that was as stirring as it was simple. During dinner at La Grand&nbsp;Vigne, the restaurant at Les Sources de Caudalie which boasts two Michelin stars, between&nbsp;courses, the server appeared with a silver platter of geranium leaves&mdash;to set the mood for the&nbsp;next dish, she explained. They felt like velvet and smelt like peppermint. I wrapped the leaf in&nbsp;my purse after and took it back to my room after dinner. Placing it inside the hotel&rsquo;s bedside&nbsp;table drawer, I thought of Brett in The Sun Also Rises and her bull&rsquo;s ear. Eventually, the spicy&nbsp;scent of the geranium leaf faded but its literary echoes&nbsp;lingered long after I&rsquo;d boarded a plane&nbsp;back to New York.

 
Please visit <a href="http://www.clos19.com">www.clos19.com</a> for details of the Clos19 itinerary available.

Clos19 Takes Us on a Tour of Bordeaux's Best Wineries

Tags

Recommended posts for you

Pop culture

What is the April Theory?

Fashion

Max Mara Hosts 'An Evening of Design & Heritage' With FGI and L'OFFICIEL USA

Fashion

Nicole Richie's Best Y2K Style Moments

Beauty

What Are Ombre Eyebrows—and Should You Try Them?

Fashion

Who is Clara Bow, the Original It Girl Referenced in Taylor Swift's Newest Album?

Pop culture

All the Celebrities Taylor Swift Name-Drops in 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Shopping

Heat Up Your Summer with These 11 Sexy One-Piece Bathing Suits

Beauty

Best Korean Face Wash for All Skin Types