Best of Bordeaux. Rolf Bichsel

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a Grand Cru but available for much less money.

       For Bordeaux simply suggests Grand Cru and implies a complicated, exces-

      sive, high-quality wine. Instead of unsuccessfully tagging along behind this idi-

      otic ideal, winemakers either side of the Grand Cru line (which is a world of its

       own) would be better off setting their minds to producing good, fresh, fun wines

       for cheerful consumption as an increasing number of winemakers are now do-

      ing – modern wines for everyone, rather than being forced to struggle between

       heaven and hell at the limit of profitability. If Tuscany can do it, then why can't

       Bordeaux – in the Côtes or Entre-Deux-Mers – do the same? Every month Gi-

      ronde winemakers throw in the towel, countless producers are surviving by

       the skin of their teeth, and average prices in Bordeaux are still no better than

       in Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône. Don't forget that Bordeaux floods the global

       market with around a billion (1,000,000,000) bottles of wine every year, more

       than 90% of which have nothing in common with Grand Crus, and the mere fact

       that some of this is described as Bordeaux Supérieur implies that there must be

       plenty of ‘Bordeaux Inférieur'!

       Thanks to the Internet, we now have the ability to compare the prices of

       world-famous brands in an instant. Online trade in Bordeaux is flourishing (and

       for the time being is not upsetting the traditional system, just traditional Bor-

      deaux merchants). Grands Crus are available via numerous channels, and the

       margins that an intermediary can make are on average relatively modest (un-

      less they go into cellaring and create added value from long aging). To this can

       be added competition from major (French) distributors who are increasingly

       seeking to circumvent the primeur-courtier-merchant system and use Grands

       Crus as lures. Special offers arrive in our mailboxes and the (executive) staff

       of Bordeaux Grands Crus are the first to run to the supermarket. Things look

       rather different at the other end of the scale, with rules that bring to mind the

       ills of the agricultural economy. Producers are receiving barely enough money

       to survive, sellers are trusting in the power of a recognisable name and fanning

       the flames of misunderstanding until they are blazing, slashing the margins of

       wines bought cheap which have to compete with Grands Crus, and once again

       wine enthusiasts are pulling chestnuts out of the fire and getting their fingers

       burnt on illusory bargains. And because the rest of the wine world grumbles

       about Bordeaux in public but emulates it in private, there are very few real al-

       ternatives.

       45

       The Bordeaux-makers History

       The Bordeaux makers

       Well, first there are the North Africans. Although they do not drink great Bor-

      deaux, they play a major role in producing it, for which they are paid a pittance.

       They are also Muslims, which poses no problems, as the Bordelais have always

       shared Old Fritz's view that everyone should be holy in their own way. Although

       Bordeaux has always been Catholic, it has successfully traded with Israelites,

       Protestants and Anglicans who had become the ultimate controllers of global

       trade, and its vines are now cultivated by Muslims, particularly in the historic

       left bank regions of Bordeaux, largely by (local) women. Despite the high unem-

      ployment rate, your average Frenchman does not want to get his hands dirty

       with hard vineyard labour. Men sit on tractors and drive full barrels through the

       winery. Manual work such as foliage treatment, vine pruning, hoeing between

       the canes where the machines cannot reach, and sorting has always been per-

      formed by the wives, and the men are happy that way. ‘Petites façons' (‘small

       work'), was what they called the work of female hands, namely breaking up the

       soils between the vines with a pickaxe, whilst the men performed the ‘big work'

       consisting of clattering proudly through the vines with a team of oxen and whis-

      tling to the girls slaving away in the dirt below. Tribute should also be paid to all

       of the female figures past and present who have accompanied their husbands

       in the vineyard. They also play a leading role during the harvest, at the sorting

       table, in the o

       ffi

       ce (who else ensures that orders are ful

       fi

       lled, samples are sent,

       visitors are welcomed, coffee is brewed and thousands of other ‘minor details'

       are taken care of?) and even at the head of the company or in the cellar: the Fac-

      ulty of Oenology in Bordeaux now has more female students than male, which

       is as it should be.

       What makes Bordeaux so unique is the fact that production on an almost in-

      dustrial scale began here in very early times. This made the division of labour

       and specialisation essential, demanded a large amount of technical know-how,

       and soon required its own oenological faculty: techniques such СКАЧАТЬ