In the premiere of “The Legend”, host Leslie Kellen invites us into the heart of his adopted village of Blaye, on Bordeaux’s enchanting East Bank. Against the backdrop of the UNESCO-listed Citadel and the rolling Gironde estuary, Les begins a personal journey that is part memoir, part cultural exploration.
Through candid storytelling and encounters with locals, he reveals how a chance cycling trip decades ago led him to this town of cobbled streets, ancient stones, and unpretentious warmth. Viewers are immersed in daily life in Bordeaux Village Blaye, we are introduced to the lovingly restored 19th-century guesthouse of Villa St Simon that became both a refuge and a springboard for friendships, adventures, and winemaking.
From bakers and wine growers to artists and antiquaires, Les paints a portrait of Blaye not as a postcard, but as a living community—rich in humor, tradition, and human connection. The episode captures the essence of his philosophy: that wine, art, and friendship are best enjoyed in balance, and that history is never far from the present in this fertile corner of France.
The pilot is not just an introduction to a place—it is an invitation into a way of life. Through Les’ eyes, we experience the beginnings of a legend.
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Credits
:: An Atomic Kid Studios Production ::
Director: Stephen Barrante
Director of Photography: Thomas Nelson
Editors: Thomas Nelson / Stephen Barrante
Producer: Jodee Caruso
Featuring: Leslie Kellen
Sound & Music
Sound Engineer: Justin Florin, Cinekinox
Audio Mixing: Thomas Nelson / Stephen Barrante
Music: Artlist.io, Shutterstock, PremiumBeat.com
Visuals
Drone Operator: Stephen Barrante
Title Animation: Danny Scinto
Animation Direction: Ben Miller / Stephen Barrante
Colorist: Stephen Barrante
2CV Model: Lucien Lilippe
Special thanks to…
Remy Eymas – Chateau Gros Moulin
Valerie, Jerome, & Augustin Eymas – Chateau La Rose Bellevue
Paul-Henry Nerbusson – Chateau La Garde
Famille Bassereau – Chateau De La Grave
Tristan Bouscasse – Chateau Cantinot
Christian Falkenberg РCh̢teau Perenne
Corinne Chevrier-Loriaud & Dominique Donitian – Chateau Belair La Royere
Christian Daude – Baker
Thierry Bisch – Artist
Francesco Moretti – Artist
Claire Roger – Artist
Inge Yang & Nakiba Stewart – Lily A La Vanille
Citadelle De Blaye Art Festival – Blaye En État D’art 4eme Édition
The City of Blaye, France
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👉 Read Leslie’s book My Little World and more: https://lesliekellen.blog/the-book/
👉 Subscribe to our production team Atomic Kid Studios: @atomickidstudios
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[Music] My name is Les Kellen. Uh I’ve been in Bllye for 25 years. Uh it’s been one of the best 25 years of the whole of my life. So I always knew I’d end up here in France. BL was kind of an accident, but it’s ideally placed. We call it Bllye Wine Center. I didn’t choose Bllye. Uh BLE chose me. I’m a bit infamous for a statement that there are two kinds of wines in the world, French and others. All living is meeting. The most important thing in life is meeting people. See how they tick and every person, however ordinary they may seem, is extraordinary in some way or another. It has been and continues to be a great journey. And uh I invite you all to come along for the ride. [Music] [Music] Okay, here we go. And you’ve got a very unusual wine celler. Can we see that again? It’s quite empty because the last time you came, you drank most of it, most of our wines. It’s a little bit uh the the the cellar is dry. Uhhuh. I was sending you some of my customers staying in Villa Simon and I spoke with you on the phone and I recognized straight your lovely sexy accent when you came in the shop of my girlfriend and I said, “Are you Leslie Kellen?” And he said, “Yes.” And I said, “Wow, I’m Valeras from Chatar Ros Belleview, blah blah blah.” And then this is how we met. Yes. Uh, you started to be a client, but you know now that you are more than a client because we are now friends and more than friends and I’m the godfather. And you are the godfather of my son. And what I like about you and why did I choose you as a godfather is because you are funny. That’s my godson. and you love uh the life and you love the art and you love the music and the wine and I want to give him a good education for fun and art and everything. I’m going to teach your son to love one woman, all wine, all music and his mom. Yeah. And this is why I choose you as a good father. Cheers. Cheers. [Music] You can drive a half an hour and still be in the Appalachian of Blie. And there are about 680 vineyards in Blie. Some of the best wines in the world are here, but most of the world doesn’t know about them. I enjoy the landscape in my iconic Citroen 2CV. the French car that uh everyone who’s lived here has had at some point in their lives. We’re headed now to Chateau Degraph, a breathtaking winery with some of the best wine in the area. [Music] It’s a long time since I’ve been here. So, come. I wanted you to show me the gardens again because I haven’t been there for ages. Let’s go. [Music] shadow in the whole of Kotborg 1860. That’s a long time ago. Wow. Fantastic. How many hectares have you got? How many bottles are you making each year? Wow. 250,000. So, we can go and see the barrel seller. Yes, sir. Fantastic. [Music] So, it’s a traditional barrel that you see very often in the grrew class. How many different barrel makers? Okay, that’s amazing. That’s really wonderful. Okay. Five years. Six years. Five, six years. Great. Okay. And I like the way you paint here because when you top up it doesn’t look messy. It’s uh looks very good. The leaves. Yeah. Fantastic. Lrav sets the stage for the introduction to the environment. The wine is the foundation. But people are drawn here for so much more. The art, food, culture. The wine is what people first think of when they picture Bordeaux. Though there is so much more to this beautiful place. The food, you can see all the local producers who frequent our market and the wonderful art everywhere you look truly captivates one’s senses. Hi Les. Hi. It’s good to be back here. Wow. Just had a a commission a month ago. Mhm. From one of my good collectioner. You want a hand? Yeah. And this is a a dipic. Mhm. A p. No. Just put it like that. Oh, wow. He commissioned me just to do that for his office. H Wow. Amazing. H. What do you think? Beautiful. Tierry’s relationship with Etalon Rouge began well before we took over the winery. and his beautiful artwork lives on through each and every bottle with that iconic red stallion. Etelon Rouge of course meaning red stallion and up to 2010 something like that I paint I was used to paint animals but after that I just painted that disappearance because I realized in 2010 that my subject was at the point of disappearing most of them as you can see all the more they are threatened the less paint the less paint you have. And when I I start painting an animal, I must know almost everything on it. Everything where he lives, how much the the the amount of population, what he eats, where Yeah. I I have to know everything about I got a a little present for you. You have? Yeah. I sort out a lot of things last day and I formed this back. This is the first sketch of the Ital. Oh, wow. I just found it back. Thank you. Wow. What an amazing gift it is. Are we going to frame? This was the first one. The first I did ever. Wow. Any big paintings you want to give me as well or One of the first things I noticed when I arrived from South Africa was the stunning landscape. When you’re positioned at top the Citadel, you can see the Giron River, the inlet to this region, bringing many a merchant and tourist to this area. We’re on our way to visit Paul Henri, a longtime friend and companion of Etelon Rouge and a master wine producer and fisherman, as you will soon see. It’s the region. [Music] Right. [Music] Yeah. Exact. [Music] As much as I’ve tried, we probably can’t sustain ourselves on wine alone. So, we’re headed to meet up with some wonderful people and talented artisans and sample some of the local cuisine. Fresh cut fries at Linguette maybe, or possibly some local cheese to go with all this wine. As I’m really just a large child at heart, I’m giving myself permission to skip lunch altogether and go right to dessert. Hey, Niba. Hi. How are you doing? I’m good. Good to see you again. Just refresh my memory. Just tell me what are all these flavors of these wonderful gelato that you actually make here in Bllye. The most popular flavors are vanilla, um, sitro, um, anana basilic, and also passion. So, Oh, passion. Yeah. Okay. I think, you know, I’m going to have my usual. Okay. I always have chocolate and uh, citron lemon. Yeah, it’s my favorite. There you go. Oh my god, what an ice cream. It never ceases to amaze me. It’s the second best thing next to wine. Thank you so much, sweetie. This tastes totally amazing as usual. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye bye. I actually got my ice cream degree here in France. I think it’s the only country in the world where you need to have the title of artison glacier before being able to produce your own ice cream with real cream with real milk. I think an ice cream degree is the best degree to have. I mean, I have a degree in economics and a degree in law and they’re both useless. But an ice cream degree, you can actually do something. You can make this beautiful stuff for people. You can make them happy. We create who knows an economist that made people happy or a lawyer ever. Everything is about doing in life. It’s doing what you enjoy. What I enjoy is seeing my children happy. I My children were the inspiration for opening an ice cream shop. I always have lemon. Oh, you always have lemon and chocolate. Lemon and chocolate. For years. For years. I would so much like you to try other flavors that are also wonderful. I would like to, but I’m not very brave because if I find a restaurant and I have a plate that I really like, I go back to that same restaurant and I have that same plate each time and I know you’re absolutely right. I’m going to become braver now. So, I’m going to go for Do you have vinegar ice cream? You are retired. It doesn’t mean you need to stop learning. You can learn about new flavors. You’re absolutely right. But I’m not retired yet. I want to be retired. Nobody lets me. The ice cream here, or ll glass as they call it here in France, is made entirely from scratch. Here in Blie, our friend Christian the baker is still making fresh croissants each and every day, the same way he first began all those many years ago. It’s easy to eat and drink quite a bit here because your body doesn’t get upset with you. Everything is so fresh. It’s amazing. We have the teroir, the savar fair to compete and the good wine makers. The hand the hand of the wine makers can make a lot of things. First you need to get the teroir and then the the the wine maker’s hand is making the final uh things. Whereas, as Nicholas Jolie says, and I quoted it once before, he said, “There’s only one star wine maker in the world, and that is nature.” Okay? Only one wine master. And wine makers are nature’s assistants. And he’s absolutely right. Totally agree. So, cheers, Les. Cheers. Thanks for How many big barrels like this have you got? Why we have around six 70 ecto liter vats and uh six also 50 ecto yeah that so how long do you think these are going to actually last before you have to replace them? Well, uh the thing is that because our philosophy is not to get new oak, uh we we want to keep it them to get these micro oxygenation that contribute to get soft tonance at the end of the muring process. Well, you know the wood is a material who is moving. So, you need to keep certain humidity inside the cellar. But uh you see for example just behind we we have some wooden tanks that was bought in 2006 for little cu for example and they are still they still look pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a bit like my wife. She doesn’t want to take new ones either. So I’m going to be around forever. She said for I’m sure of this. We wanted to still talk about our history because you know when you have uh history to tell uh the past history I think it’s really important to let this history to be known for the next gen generation and so in fact this logo yeah it’s a it’s the logo of our wines with a big history behind one of the founders of my country said you have to take the best parts of the of your history and build your future on them. So that’s the kind of thing that you This is what we are doing with my wife Sophie. Sure. Continuing this this story. The soul of a place is the hospitality of the people who live and work there. Quick shout out to Tristan and Sophie at Chateau Cantino. The big family style meal they’ve prepared for us to share. The sun is setting on the vines and it has been a good day. [Music] Well, now that I’ve slept that off, it’s time for me to visit one of the most unassuming masters of wine in the region, Mousie Remy Amos. He’s an 11th generation wine maker and makes some incredible reds and whites at Chatau Grulan. Well, they always say that when the vines are inside of the river, they produce much better grapes. Oh, yeah. But it’s also the exposure straight south west and uh and you see the the vines this year are are very healthy, very beautiful grapes. Yeah, Rey’s winery is one of the oldest in Borg. The estate dates back to 1757. If you’re wondering how the name came about, just look up. There’s an old mill or Mulan left standing from when the property was used for wheat harvesting. So, we’re going to taste the 22 heritage and that is uh 100% Malbec. The first vintage I did on that was 2012 and uh I added a bit of cab Frank. Uh I found that uh that was useless. The the Malbeck was perfect by itself. Some of these families uh have been making wine for over 267 years, but it’s never too late to start. My wife Clarissa and I have made Etelon Rouge our own right here in Bllye, offering visitors an opportunity to learn more about the wine- making process. A well-made wine, like a good person, is well balanced. In France, we can’t add anything. In South Africa, in California, in the New World, you can get tastes by adding all sorts of things. In France, it’s not allowed. So you only got the grape, you’ve got the barrel, you’ve got the wine maker, and um that’s it. It should be uh mandatory, I believe, for all wine critics to make at least one vintage, taking part in all aspects from the fieldwork to the bottling. After one has experienced a year doing so, one has a solid basis and perspective before judging wine on how it tastes. My stress levels are zero. Once I get here, it sometimes rises a bit. But there’s only one master of wine, okay? Nature. Nature is the only wine master. And the wine maker is simply nature’s assistant. So, you know, God bless all the wine masters. And I’m sure that they earn a good living out of their um out of their MW at the end of their name. But there is only one wine master, okay? And that is nature. And we kept the wheel walls as they are just because it brings out the painting so much better. How rude of me. So far into this story. And I haven’t yet introduced this uh incredible person. She makes the wine. She creates art. And she does her best to keep me out of trouble. Switch roles. He’s my muse. He doesn’t like it cuz he thinks it looks like he’s already in the morg. But I love it. It’s my amazing wife, Clarissa. Her beautiful works cover the floors and walls of our local downtown gallery for visitors to enjoy. As an artist and host to many alike, we’ve come upon her favorite time of year here in Bllye. So, what’s going on here, Clarissa? Well, this is the best time of the year to come here because it’s in June. We’ve got this amazing art festival here. It’s BLE on Itad. So it means bl in a state of art which is you can you’re going to see because there’s art all over here in the puder which is the old um the storage where they used to have the the powder for shooting the cannon powder. Oh this is where the gunpowder was for the cannons. Exactly. And now also exhibition Yeah. They’ve got four ceramicists exhibiting here today. Let’s go in. Come. Should we go in? Yeah, let’s go in. [Music] Hey. Hello, Claire. [Laughter] So, she’s brought all these. Yeah. So, Cla normally exhibits here always in the Citadel, but this time she’s brought four different other ceramicists here, which is great because that gives them exposition. Marri. Okay. Wait. Look at this le Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay. [Music] I don’t know if Okay. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. The talented artisans who come to BL make this place incredibly special. And what better way to uh to take a pause in our journey than to spend it with some equally talented and special people uh great people who have become part of our extended family here in Bllye and continue to go on this journey with us. You’re on film. You’re on camera. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I ain’t going to take another [Music] [Applause] [Music] all the way from California. You have to see Lesie. Leave that. Leave that phone. Uh I’ve been called the legend. I humbly assert that is more about my wine knowledge and not my singing. But uh when you’re surrounded by such great people in this amazing setting, how can one not pick up the mic and feel loved? [Music] [Applause] What we hope you take away from this series is that Bllye and by extension the surrounding area of Borg uh are of the wine world’s bestkept secrets and the epicenter to my little world. You can spend two lifetimes and never know everything about wine. And this amazing area I’ve called home for all these years. This area possesses a wonderful diversity of personalities, trades people, artists, and artisans and of course wine makers. I have known many of the locals for nearly 25 years, and most have been a pleasure to know and to share the town with. And over these years, I have discovered that wines and vines are very similar in many ways to people. These are people I call friends and family, and I look forward to introducing all of them to you. We’ve only just begun this journey. So, it will keep you interested and uh make your life uh incredibly uh more interesting. And I look forward to sharing these experiences with you and then encourage you to begin going on your own adventures. [Music] [Music]