For our second night at the lovely Les Sources de Caudalie outside Bordeaux we booked their 3 Michelin star restaurant which is an elegant spacious room (we also had breakfast here every morning overlooking the pond and vines, but at night it completely transforms into the gastronomic temple of Chef Nicolas Masse. We were given a choice between a 5 or 7 course menu and went for the former, which more than enough as we saw some of the other courses and felt the other courses we saw flying by were really not needed. As it was the experience lasted well over 3 hours and every bite and sip was a sensation.
Before we went to dinner we met our wonderful new friends, Christina & Francis, for a drink in the very fun bar, with a very fun menu. The server suggested Pinxto Pote knowing I enjoyed the spicy mezcal drink the previous night. The drink was made of Oli Still, a black olive eau de vie from the south of France, Giundilla (a fish snack from Basque country), salmorejo pickle juice and Garum syrup (yes fish sauce). It was quite sour and pickle-y and while I drank it, I felt that I should have stuck with my previous night's choice! In the dining room the sommelier brought over a huge thick-bound "bible" of wines and we finally settled on Chateau Couhins Lurton Grand Gru Classe de Graves 2016 which was an amazingly creamy, unctuous and mineral-based Sauvignon Blanc (with a tad of Semillon, I think) that had huge legs and was one of our favorite whites so far in Bordeaux! Riedel glassware was the norm here unlike the hotel's second restaurant the night before, where the crystal was very basic. The water was Bonneval, whoch the sommelier was a sparkling water from Savoie made by the owner of Chateau Petrus....lots of hype and very fizzy, so we switched to the much less expensive local Abatilles after one bottle. The huge, rounded glasses for the water were extremely unwieldy and for me, required two hands to drink, which was quite silly, even if they were very pretty.
One of the servers (there were many) poured an herbal drink tableside made of hyssop, lavender, sparkling water and a tad of mint which was interesting but no revelation unless you are into herbal water...maybe it's a spa thing. The amuses began and they were all superb. A small "log" was placed on the table with two cork-like items perched on it which turned out to be a feuille (the lightest crispy paper-thin dough) filled with foie gras and Pinot de Charentes which was a mouthful of magnificence. Another platter had chestnut tuille with chestnut puree and black truffles from Perigord. We learned soon that each course has a link to some wine vintage or such and when presented with the menu at the end of the night, the wine vintages & origins were listed. All the photos are on facebook! The final amuse was a one-bite in the mouth ravioli that was explained to us as herb-cream filled. In the mouth it exploded with liquid and all I could think of was a French version of Shanghai dumpling! The local crusty sourdough arrived with a verjus and fennel butter, which I loved, as the fennel was almost impossible to detect.
Our first course was yellow beets poached with red wine, beet confit, a hint of smoked meagre (fish) which we joked was very meagre as it was wrapped in the layers of beets and hidden, with a scoop(that looked like ice cream) of red-wine infused Normandie Isynee cream. It was a rich and divine cream that was irresistible and the beets a perfect foil all called Terre de Grave Millesime 2024 as the beets were local from Graves!
Second came Normandie grilled scallop that was barely cooked with Black truffle from Perigord atop a risotto of celery (there was no rice) and a sauce de pied de Saint Jacques(made from the scallop "foot") with vin jaune and onion, called Coquille et Tuber Melanosporum Millesime 2023.
Just when we thought no fish could outdo the scallop, the third course arrived in the form of Hake Fish from Saint Jean de Luz along with butternut squash disk, marinated and roasted and a "ravioli" filled with pumpkin seed and confit citrus puree. Entre terre et mer Millesime 2023 said this was a "butternut puck" and I have to say it was the only thing we disliked about the entire meal. The filling was extremely sour and pickle-y and reminded me of the drink I had before dinner! The hake was superb and it sat on a cream of butternut and sea urchin that was simply divine.
We had a long break here to finish our white wine and decided to have a full bottle of red since the lowest price glass of red on the menu was 29 Euros and there were full bottles of some amazing reds for around 100!! Chateau Bouscaut was literally from around the corner and the 2015 Grand Cru Classe de Graves (Pessac-Leognan) was a super fruit berry forward wine that was so smooth with virtually no intense tannins. We loved it. At this point we were also invited into the kitchen to meet the chef, pastry chef and team and watch a bit of the insanity as this huge kitchen serves two restaurants and is indeed quite busy.
Our pre-main course was a pickled cabbage consomme with foie gras that I forgot to photograph, but this was followed by Chasse et Chou Millisime 2023 a goregous filet of venison perfectly cooked in red wine, red pepper and red cabbage with a surprise piece of foie gras hidden underneath. Granny smith apple gave this dish a special taste to boot. Douceur d'hiver Primeur 2024 was two desserts presented simultaneously. Comice pear poached in saffron de Bordeaux and vin jaune with a biscuit and a Saffron cream custard with ice cream and bee honey, biscuit and pear gelee. There were meant to mirror each other, and they were gone quite fast.
The entire meal ended with the same mini-log on the able from the start but now with two cigar-like dark chocolate praline treats for us to finish before heading up to bed.
This team worked very hard and really shone throughout virtually all the meal (we had to ask for wine once or twice!) and they served with a smile and always happily repeated for us when the descriptions were not so coherent! That said, it was indeed a treat and way less than any gastronomic temple 3-Michelin star spot in Paris would charge; that's why we love Bordeaux! It's great to know we can easily take an Uber or Bolt(much cheaper here) just 20 minutes to dine here anytime we want!
Happy travels.
