From Wine to Soy Sauce : A different Taste of Saint Émilion
If you’ve ever seen people in long red robes walking through the streets of Saint-Émilion, accompanied by music, you’ve already had a glimpse of the Jurade de Saint-Émilion.
Last week, I had the chance to experience the celebration from morning until the very end. So today, I’d like to take you inside the day with me.
A Very French Morning
The morning began in a very French way: coffee and croissants at the Mairie, Saint-Émilion’s town hall. We checked in, received our wristbands, found out which table we would be sitting at for lunch… and waited.
Not for long. Soon, music filled the streets.
The Jurats, dressed in their traditional red robes, formed a procession and slowly made their way through the narrow stone streets of Saint-Émilion.
We followed them into the church for Mass and a blessing for the upcoming harvest. After that came the ceremony welcoming new members into the Jurade.
From the outside, it might simply look like a beautiful traditional ceremony in a historic wine village.
But walking through it, I felt something different.
In Saint-Émilion, wine isn’t simply something you find in a glass.
It is part of the town’s traditions, its way of life and, in many ways, its identity.
And after all the ceremonies…
It was time for lunch. 🍷
Twelve Wines Later…
A full-course lunch.
And 12 wines.
My table was particularly interesting because I was surrounded by wine producers, château owners and négociants.
But the most entertaining part?
Every time a new flight of wines arrived, it didn’t arrive quietly.
There was music.
First round , everyone remained nicely seated, politely applauding.
A few glasses later…People started moving to the music.
A little later … dancing😂
The dining room had started the afternoon feeling rather formal. Little by little, it transformed into laughter, conversations travelling across tables, music and people simply enjoying themselves.
But strangely enough, one of the things I remember most clearly from that table wasn’t a wine.
It was… soy sauce.
Yes. Japanese soy sauce. 😄
Wait… Aren’t We Here to Talk About Wine?
One of the wine producers sitting at my table also happens to be involved in making Japanese-style soy sauce near Saint-Émilion—and they even export it to Japan.
My first thought was:
Wait a minute... I came to the Jurade. We were talking about wine. How did we suddenly end up talking about soy sauce? 😂
But the more I listened, the more fascinating it became.
Wine and soy sauce may seem to belong to completely different worlds. Yet both are shaped by time, microorganisms, careful control and the savoir-faire of the people making them.
Flavour doesn’t come from the raw ingredients alone.
It comes from the process.From the place.From time.
And from the people who understand how to guide that transformation.
That conversation made me think again about a word we use constantly in wine:
terroir.
Perhaps terroir is part of a much bigger question:
How do place, nature, time and human craftsmanship come together to create flavour?
One More Place for My List
Before we left, he gave each of us a bottle of soy sauce.
I came home with the black one.
Which, of course, means I now have another place I need to visit:
a soy sauce workshop run by a Saint-Émilion wine producer.
I want to see for myself how they make it—and discover just how far the idea of terroir can connect the worlds of wine and soy sauce.
So, at the end of the day, I came home with…
12 wines tasted, a Macaron de Saint-Émilion in my bag, one bottle of soy sauce, and a slightly broader understanding of terroir.
And this is exactly what I love about the world of wine.
Sometimes, we open a bottle because we want to discover the story of one wine.
But somehow, that bottle ends up opening the door to worlds we never expected to find.
Wine Diary by BW
Uncork & Unlock the World of French Wine
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