(Businessweek) - First, we drank a glass of sweet fermented bernache, pink and bubbly, with our lunch appetizer of warmed chestnuts. Then a local Cotes de Bourg, to accompany the chicken, salad and pate. As we moved onto the cheese course, another Cotes de Bourg appeared, this one from the Bordeaux chateau on whose grounds we were picnicking. A winetasting followed at the chateau itself: two roses and three reds. We then saddled our horses to trot, canter and gallop for two hours through the vineyards of western France toward our next destination. Despite the liquid lunch, everyone stayed on.