Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had the opportunity to blend some of the world’s best wines the way you like it and call it by your name! And could there be a better gift for someone special? Could there be a better wine to open on your special occasion?! I was one of the fortunate ones who got the opportunity to do exactly that! While curating my passion for wine trip to Bordeaux, France, I discovered that one could book and attend a wine blending workshop at the beautiful and legendary Chateau Pape Clement in Bordeaux!

Chateau Pape-Clement, part of the Graves Cru Classification, was already on my list of Chateaux that I surely wanted to visit, because of its incredible history and legacy of wine growing!

Chateau Pape-Clement, is one of the oldest wine estates in Bordeaux with harvests dating back to 1252! It was historically owned by Betrand de Goth before he became Pope Clement V in 1305 (Yes, that’s right!).

It is located at an easy twenty minute drive, south of Bordeaux, in the Pessac region. Pessacis where wines were first grown and made in the Bordeaux region before going up to Medoc and across the right bank of the river to Saint Emilion village.

When we got there, post walking around the Chateau and seeing the beautiful ageing room with the barrels, my friend and I took a wine blending workshop. Chateau Pape Clement offers a session for blending your own wine, corking your bottle the traditional way and even designing your own bottle label!

Here, we made our own blend of wine from the 2014 Vintage of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon of Chateau La Tour Carnet – another Grand Cru Classe Chateau in Medoc owned by the French wine magnet Bernard Magrez, also the owner of Pape Clement. The workshop was truly an authentic experience, where, after blending the two wines to our individual preference, we corked our bottle and the sealed the cap using century old traditional wine making tools! We even designed our own label and printed it on our bottle!

My wine trip buddy Afsha named hers as ‘Afsha Cru’ and I proudly called mine ‘Vin de MV’ – which, in French, means ‘Wine of Manmeet Vohra’.

Can there be a better souvenir to bring back from your trip than your own bottle of wine, made and bottled, your way!