Best of Bordeaux. Rolf Bichsel

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СКАЧАТЬ into the purchaser's glass. Without a doubt, they would have been sweet and

       sparkling as happens to wines today if we leave them to their own devices,

       which was the practice at the time. The few historic sources citing wines with

       their origins (Andely, Rabelais, Villon) make no mention of Bordeaux until the

       late 16th century.

       The New French Claret

       The concept of a Grand Vin, differing from standard wine like a prince from

       a pauper, came to the owner of a plot called Ho Brian (Haut-Brion) to the south

       of Bordeaux between 1550 and 1650, a flash of inspiration which should earn

       him a heartfelt tribute from any halfway grateful Bordeaux fan. Of course, the

       various Jeans and Arnauds de Pontac (in Bordeaux as elsewhere, first names

       are re-used throughout multiple generations, making genealogical research a

       particularly exacting activity), were thinking not of winemaking posterity, but

       rather of their own pockets and economic survival. During this same period of

       history, Columbus ran aground in the Bahamas in 1492, Magellan circumnavi-

      gated the globe for the first time in 1519, and in 1582 German doctor and natural

       historian Leonhart Rauwolf wrote a 500-page volume recounting his Oriental

       travels, which included a passage on Turkish drinking habits (page 105): ‘among

       the rest they have a very good drink they call Chaube that is almost as black as

       ink and very good in illness, especially of the stomach.' In 1550 the first coffee

       house opened in Istanbul, Venice began brewing mocha in around 1600, and

       bags full of ‘Chaube' beans were first listed on the London and Marseille port

       registers in around 1650. The assiduous Rauwolf revealed that the Turks viewed

       coffee as a replacement for wine, the consumption of which was a punishable

       offence across the entire Ottoman Empire (with the exception of short periods

       of drinking freedom).

       If the Bordelais in general (who had been making a living from winemaking

       for more than 300 years) and the de Pontacs in particular (who were heavily reli-

      ant on it because they gave with one hand and took away with the other) wanted

       to defy the nascent competition, they had to come up with something whether

       they liked it or not. Their local wines, which were only successful because A) the

       water was so dangerous to drink that it had to be disinfected with this wine and

      

       Be our guest and enjoy your stay to the fullest. Our maitre de cuisine

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      sine and many products from our own organic garden. We offer creative

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       our historic English park with its organic gardens where you may discover

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       Located within the castle is a historic bath tub, dating from 1928, where

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       great local options for a day or half-day outing.

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       B) all other wines from surrounding areas and the remaining southwest were

       refused access to the port until after Christmas, could not bear comparison with

       other generally more powerful and transportable drinks such as coffee, tea and

       chocolate. This also applied to brandy and there was strong competition from

       Portugal – military and economic partners of England since the 1386 Treaty of

       Windsor – and Spain whose ‘sack' from Jerez was sold by the Vintner's Company

       in London from 1565. Did Shakespeare have Falstaff drink Bordeaux? Absolutely

       not! The womaniser declaimed in the 1597 play Henry IV, part 2: ‘A good sherris-

      sack (...) ascends into the brain (...) and warms the blood'. No mention of claret!

       A successful product cannot just be plucked out of thin air: you first have to

       analyse the production conditions, the market and sales opportunities. If the

       conditions do not match the consumers' needs, you invest in clever marketing.

       You identify consumer motivators – people who define the spirit of the age – and

       allow them to test the product, invite them to a good meal or a relaxing few days

       on a yacht. That is exactly what the de Pontacs and their neighbours skilfully

       did – they analysed the natural conditions and made the best of them. Because

       they had gravel mounds rather than the fertile sediment along the banks of the

       Garonne, they simply gathered up the latter from every mud deposit they could

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