Un Voyage Magnifique!

Playing Golf in France – Cabot Bordeaux

Upon our arrival in Cabot Bordeaux where we would spend two nights in our modern air-conditioned rooms, we had a lovely drinks reception outside on the terrace overlooking a lush green course. Did we have champagne? Bien sûr! Set dinner to follow.

The following day we were all set up to play the Château Course designed by Bill Coore. In fact, it was from Bill that I learned about Cabot Bordeaux, formerly Golf du Médoc, when I interviewed him for his profile in Terroir of Golf. Les Châteaux opened in 1989 and was a solo design without his teammate Ben Crenshaw, although they formed a partnership and began collaborating in 1986.

Kevin always makes the golf we play on our custom-curated tours more fun by creating a friendly competition using the Stableford format. He collects the cards from each couple/team to determine the daily winners and the overall winners based on the best three scores out of the five rounds. The winners are all announced at the final dinner and they receive their prizes in Euros, accompanied by hearty applause. The wine flows. The smiles widen.

Golf & Wine Tour participants visiting Château Kirwan

While staying at Cabot Bordeaux, we had a wine tasting tour and private dinner at Château Kirwan. We tasted some classic Bordeaux varieties with a few canapés outside. Once we entered the thoroughly modern building with some remarkable contemporary artwork on display, we were led down to the massive 37 Italian-designed concrete vats —one for each plot in their vineyard— to control the fermentation. Our dinner was served in an airy room where we could look out over the vineyards on the front side and a huge wine cellar full of beautiful red-banded barrels on the other side.

I learned the winery takes its name from Mark Kirwan, who bought two vineyards in the late 18th century, and his family was one of the Tribes of Galway. It is believed that Irish business owners who moved to Bordeaux were very influential in popularizing the style and taste of Bordeaux wines that we are all so fond of now. Later on there were two ownership changes in the 19th and early 20th centuries but they retained the Kirwan name.

Château Kirwan

A Day at Golf de Fontainebleau

It wasn’t easy, but we did manage to arrange for our group to play at the historic Golf de Fontainebleau. This very private members club permitted us to invade their sanctuary. It sits inside the historic Fontainebleau forest in France, built on sandy ground with narrow, tree-lined fairways. The course was lush but there was a massive wildfire in mid-July, requiring the efforts of nearly 800 firefighters to contain it.

The fires would have affected not just the private golf course but many nature lovers who would come to walk and hike the hundreds of kilometers of marked paths in the forest. During our round we witnessed the cutting down of nearby trees that would be dangerous if not removed.

The course was originally designed by the French architect Julien Chantepie in 1909. Quite a bit of pedigree, with Tom Simpson redesigning the course in 1920 and then it was lengthened and modified further by Fred Hawtree in 1963. Frederick George Hawtree started the firm in 1912. Now third generation Martin Hawtree heads the company.

This wasn’t easy either, but we also managed to arrange to have a private dinner at the club for our group of 24. We were treated to a spectacular sunset looking in the direction of the first hole, which was magnificent and somewhat intimidating with a row of cross bunkers in the middle of the fairway, requiring a heroic shot to clear them.

Trocard Wine and Food Experience

On our rest day from golf, some of us opted to indulge in the picturesque Chateau des Vigiers’s Spa’s wellness center set in the property’s old wine cellars, and some decided to roam around the narrow medieval streets of Saint-Emilion and explore places like the Monolithic Church and the Bell Tower. There could even have been some wine tasting…?

The evening brought us all together to experience the range of flagship terroirs at Vignobles Jean-Louis Trocard, and the most outstanding dinner hosted by Benoît Trocard and his family. We started our event just a day after the harvest finished. For the wine tasting, down in the caves with the barrels of aging wine, Benoit chose 4 bottles ranging from a Grand Cru Saint Emilion Franc La Rose from 2000 to the Chateau Porte Chic, 2014, from Pomerol. He conducted our tasting with complete aplomb.

Our group was then led upstairs to a private dining area, where several generations of the Trocard dynasty would have their extended family gatherings.

There is no single word that can describe this extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime immersive experience. The sumptuous dinner was a carefully choreographed artistic performance. Our exquisite steaks were cooked over an open fire in the massive fireplace. When first lit, the flames roared ferociously before they calmed down to a deep bed of glowing red embers. To say we were all mesmerized would be an understatement. Even if I put the whole menu and list of accompanying wines in this newsletter, it would be no substitute for being there. Maybe there is one word. Flawless.

Private Tour of Bordeaux City

The private walking tour with Maud Quinault was designed perfectly to be a total cultural-immersion experience. This being where she lives, her itinerary for our group was absolutely fantastique.

When Maud learned that I have a huge interest in Eleanor of Aquitaine, she said she would emphasize some extra history about the Saint-André Cathedral where Eleanor married the future King Louis VII of France in 1137. My fascination about everything-Eleanor developed when I was researching Terroir. She was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in all of Western Europe when she inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine. Her family controlled more of France than the French kings did.

Afterwards, our guide really took us on a food & wine tasting tour all along the way. We visited a few shops in the chic pedestrianized area near the Golden Triangle, including a stop at the Alain Ducasse chocolate boutique. Every item was so beautifully presented, it was like being in a Madison Avenue jewelry store. This highly decorated chef earned a total of 21 Michelin stars over his career — the most awarded to a single chef.

After we had the chance to frolic in the thin sheet of water that ingeniously creates the “Mirror” at the Place de la Bourse, Maud shepherded us onto a short tram ride to Cité du Vin.

This is a place I really wanted to go from the minute I heard about it during our first reconnaissance trip in May 2025. The curved building itself evokes the swirling of wine in a glass. It was fun to be let loose into this remarkable building devoted to wine culture and history from all over the world.

After making our own discoveries with our individual audio guides, we gathered at the Belvedere on the 8th floor where our ticket included a glass of wine while we were treated to 360-degree views of the city and the Garonne River. This is a place you must come several times to truly appreciate the Vignobles du Monde, where you can even see a giant world map with the latitudes of the vineyards spanning all the continents.