La Maison de la Dégustation, Cerons, France, August 2016

Spotted this place on the drive in to Bordeaux from where we were staying. It is located by the D1113 just south of Cerons. Saw it from the road, the red lettering on the side of the building standing out from the undergrowth. Decided it required further attention after checking it out on Google Earth. So early one beautiful August morning set off for this place as the sun rose. The location amongst the vines was really idyllic and made for a relaxed mooch. The place itself isn’t spectacular. It is a former Maison Degustation where people would have come to taste and buy wine. There’s very little on the web and have not been able to fine any history about the place. Clearly though it has been abandoned for some time and is in the advanced stages of decay. The vineyard that surrounds it is very much still in use but this place must have become surplus to requirements.

The approach to this place was, to say the least, rather beautiful:

img6910 by HughieDW, on Flickr

No doubt about what this place used to be:

img6914 by HughieDW, on Flickr

This is what caught my eye from the road:

img6915 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nature has very much taken over:

img6917 by HughieDW, on Flickr

More hints of the buildings former usage:

img6918 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside is far gone to say the least:

img6919 by HughieDW, on Flickr

With nothing of particular interest:

img6920 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Just good old rotting wood and decay:

img6921 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6922 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Not quite your abandoned chateaux but still quite photogenic:

img6924 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6925 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Loved the colour of the lettering as the sun finally caught up with proceedings:

img6927 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Time for a T:

img6929 by HughieDW, on Flickr

This little place was just up the road so popping that in here too:

img6931 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6934 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6932 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6933bw by HughieDW, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

There's not much of chance to taste any food or wine there. A pity though, looks like it was a nice place at one time. The translation from Wikipedia: Dégustation is a culinary term meaning a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef's signature dishes in one sitting.

A.k.a supping wine ;-)

That's a really beautiful place. That first pic is stunning. Nice work once again!

Cracking images Hughie.

In the 60's the French wine producing regions were full of places like this - the advent of modern wine making techniques has almost stopped the need to taste the local fermentations to ensure one is not getting a case of vinegar. However back then things were somewhat different and some of the 'local' offerings could be, should we say different! The avenue of trees brings to mind a very early October morning in '64, when six of us were motoring down to Algeciras in my ex MOD Humber 1 ton truck, on the way for a months climbing in the Atlas Mountains. With the dawn mist hanging in the trees, I was abruptly brought to a sudden stop by the sight of a very irate Frenchman in the middle of the road, waving a very large branch. Further down the road one could just make out the wreck of a 2CV van, standing on its back doors, propped against one of the huge trees. From what we could make out, one minute the road was clear and next - a sodding great tree was standing in his path! Our French vocabulary was greatly enhanced during the short journey to the local Gendarmery, where we learnt that this was a regular occurrence for this gentleman if he was returning from an all night bender. Turned out he was the local carpenter and coffin maker and liked a few vinos at the Wake!

That story is epic Dirus! Made me chuckle...

Yes we had some fun in those days Hughie. Spain was very different - Franco still on the throne and all that - technically the Humber was a commercial vehicle in Spanish and French eyes and thus we had to follow all the lorry routes when going though any town/city of size. This did cause minor problems because all our AA route plan maps/directions assumed we were tourists in a car - going half a dozen times around the fountain in central Madrid, totally lost at 3 am in the morning did not amuse the Spanish motorcycle cop who flagged us down. Unfortunately his actions after stopping us reduced us all to screaming wrecks and after professing 'no Spanish!', he swore at us and stomped off back to his motorcycle. At that time the motorcycle police wore fully lace up riding boots, jodhpurs, skirted/flared jacket, gauntlets and the old pudding basin crash hat and goggles. We had only seen these individuals riding about on their bikes, which had a very large square box on the pannier rack - radio we thought. Now picture this, on reaching bike he opened the box and carefully took off the pudding basin, wiped the inside with a cloth and placed it on the open lid. He then removed a 'Hussar' style hat from the box, produced a clothes brush and brush it and then placed hat on head, before striding over to us. By this time we were all blubbering wrecks and when I shrugged my shoulders and stated 'No Spanish', this must have been the last straw and the Spanish equivalent of 'Bloody English Schoolboys' was the last we heard. Happy days.