Castles by the sea

Christine Birem shows a 3-D bronze map of Bordeaux.

Mendez is a transplanted Singaporean native who fell in love with wine - and moved to Bordeaux to study it properly.

She and her husband operate a gallery that allows time-challenged visitors to taste the best of the region's vintages at a one-stop shop.

In the past year, they expanded into Asia with branches in Tokyo and Taipei. We stroll over to her gallery, where there are Enomatic dispensers storing 48 different Bordeaux wines available for flights, half glass or full glass sampling.

"We are the first in the world to offer this type of shop," says Mendez proudly. "Bordeaux is the birth place of the noble grapes: merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet Franc and petit verdot. "There are 1,000 years of wine making history and know how here. We only buy wine directly from the chateaux. There are 10,000 wineries in Bordeaux, we only take the top 48. We are popular with many Asians, allowing them to taste First Growths without going to the wineries. And we are priced to be affordable for new markets and novice buyers."

She presents a parallel tasting of four 2007 wines for us to compare and contrast.

We try Chateau La Lagune, Chateau Leoville Barton Saint Julien, Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac and Chateau Montrose; all are cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot blends, with a couple also containing cabernet Franc.

La Lagune has a fresh menthol finish while the woodier and more astringent Leoville ends very dry. I find it amazing that despite all coming from the same region and with the same climate conditions and similar grape varietals, the four wines could be so different.

As we near the end of our tasting, we are joined by Christine Birem, who takes us on a guided tour of Bordeaux starting from the Grand Theater.

We stroll along the fashionable rue Sainte-Catherine down to the Garonne River via the Gothic Eglise Saint-Pierre.

I pause to admire the medieval Porte Cailhau and imagine the countless of knights and nobility that have ridden through its gate.

Next, we take a few perfect photos of Place de la Bourse reflected in the pond in front of it before heading back up along Allees de Tourny to admire its stately rows of cream colored stone buildings.

Completing the loop of the city center back at the Grand Theater and Grand Hotel de Bordeaux, I look forward to returning to a home cooked meal by Florian, a crackling fire, and a glass or two of the kind of wine that makes Bordeaux a must for admirers of noble grapes.

Contact the writer at sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn.

Related: African apprentices practise kungfu at Shaolin Temple

Veal with mashed potatoes and spinach by chef Florian.

The suite at Chateau La Lagune