Rolf Bichsel - Best of Bordeaux

modularer und kom-

pakter Aufbau für opti-

male Platzausnützung

ƒ

beliebig kombinier- und

erweiterbar (Platzbedarf

pro Erweiterungssatz:

381 mm)

ƒ

u

nübertroffen preis-

günstig: Basisgestell

CHF 790.–inkl. MWST

(3 Gestelleinheiten für

total 24 Kisten; H x B x T

1846 x 1178 x 440 mm)

ƒ

A

uch als praktisches

Tischgestell erhältlich.

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Spezialkonditionen ab 5 (wie Bild)

bzw. 10 Gestelleinheiten.

51

Oenologists History

neoclassical stucco villa with a liveried English servant in white gloves shak-

ily pouring an ancient Margaux into a decanter in candlelight to the sounds of

chamber music from a Russian string quartet flown in for the occasion, has been

sadly deceived. Bordeaux is not classic and aristocratic, Bordeaux is luxury, and

thanks to its increasingly broad range has remained astonishingly affordable.

Bordeaux is fashion and fun, Bordeaux is something for modern people, Bor-

deaux is young and urban, and if Bordeaux were music it would not be merely

Mozart echoing from the loudspeakers, but also techno, lounge and dub. There

is just one facet of Bordeaux which does not fit our fast-paced era: Bordeaux

needs time and leisure.

52

HistoryOverview

56 BCCrassus conquers the Bituriges: Burdigala (Bordeaux) becomes Roman.

According to the historian Strabo there is virtually no home-grown wine, with

the drink instead being imported from Iberia and southern Italy.

71 BCPliny visits Bordeaux – the city is entirely surrounded by vines.

400 ADThe teacher and rhetorician Ausonius describes Bordeaux as ‘charac-

terised by rivers and vines'.

1154Bordeaux comes under English rule. Wine becomes the city's most impor-

tant export product and ensures the wealth of its inhabitants.

1214The inhabitants of Bordeaux persuade King John of England to abolish all

export taxes on wine. The ports of Bordeaux become the world's most impor-

tant wine ports at this time.

1241Henri III Plantagenet extends the privileges of Bordeaux citizens. Wines

from other regions can only enter the city after 25 December, and thus cannot

be shipped. This privilege continues (with a few interruptions) under suc-

cessive French kings until being finally abolished in 1776 by Turgot, the first

French liberal.

1303Bordeaux exports 102,724 tonneaux (one tonneau = four barriques = 900

litres = 1,200 modern bottles) of wine, or 924,518 hl, around the equivalent of

Switzerland's entire current annual production or around 120 million bottles!

1550 Jean de Pontac builds a ‘Maison Noble' amid his vines to the south of the

city of Bordeaux, which becomes a centre and symbol of winemaking, and

thus invents the wine chateau.

1660François-Auguste de Pontac opens a tavern in London. It serves a wine

called Ho Bryan, which unlike the light red ‘clarets' is dark in colour and has

a ‘most particular taste', as Samuel Pepys wrote three years previously in his

famous diary. New French Claret is now in fashion.

1724Boucher, the King's governor, bemoans the Bordeaux aristocracy's plant-

ing fever, and in 1725 forbids the planting of any new vineyards – a ban which

stands for thirty years but is e

ff

ectively ignored.

1755Three-quarters of the income from Bordeaux's 70 top families comes

from the sale of their own wine.

1787Future American President Thomas Jefferson travels to Bordeaux and

records his impressions in a diary. Some of the estates he names and admires

include Lafite, Margaux, Latour, Haut-Brion and Yquem.

1855Based on previous rankings and on the prices fetched by wines, the

Bordeaux chamber of commerce establishes the first o

ffi

cial, state-sanctioned

An overview

of Bordeaux history

53

Overview History

classification of Bordeaux wines to coincide with the Universal Exposition in

Paris. It divides 88 estates from Haut-Médoc and Sauternes plus Haut-Brion

from Graves into categories, ranging from 1ème to 5ème Cru Classé.

1860The agronomist Jules Guyot introduces the pruning method that is

named after him, requiring vines to be grown on wires. This modern vine tech-

nique is hereafter used throughout the Gironde. Alexis Millardet and Ulysse

Gayon invent ‘Bouillie Bordelaise' (three parts copper sulphate to one part

caustic lime) as a way of combating downy and powdery mildew, which had

been damaging crops for a decade.

1863Phylloxera comes to Bordeaux and gradually attacks all of the vineyards

across Europe. Only the richest estates have the means to combat the pest

successfully.

1922Twenty-year-old Philippe de Rothschild takes the reins of Mouton and

revolutionises the Bordeaux wine world. He initiates bottling at the producing

estate (‘mise en bouteille au château'), and (re-)introduces so-called second

wines and artist-designed labels.

1946This year marks the birth of modern oenology: laboratory chemist Emile

Peynaud submits his thesis and becomes a professor at the Faculty of Oenol-

ogy. He revolutionises both the art of winemaking and the language of wine.

1956The beginning of modern winemaking on the right bank: frost destroys a

significant proportion of the vines in this area. The vineyards are restructured

and Merlot thus becomes the main variety in this part of the Bordeaux wine-

growing region.

1973Minister of Agriculture Jacques Chirac signs the only change to the 1855

classification: Mouton-Rothschild becomes a Premier Cru Classé.

1983American wine critic Robert Parker declares 1982 to be the vintage of the

century, and thus triggers a wine boom surpassing any other. The prices of

Grands Crus quadruple: whilst the merchants are initially the first to pro

fi

t, es-

tates make record profits in vintages such as 1989, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2009.

1991Former bank clerk, innkeeper and wine merchant Jean-Luc Thunevin

acquires a small, unfavourably located plot in Saint-Emilion, creates a brand

called Château Valandraud, and thus invents ‘garage wine', triggering a verita-

ble wine revolution in the area and influencing developments over the next

few years.

54

AppellationsMédoc

Bordeaux geography

Bordeaux covers around 120,000 hectares of vines in the

département of Gironde. The Garonne and the Dordogne rivers

split the region into the left bank of the Garonne (Médoc,

Graves, Sauternes) and the right bank of the Dordogne (Saint-

Emilion, Pomerol and Fronsac).

Médoc / Haut Médoc

16,300 hectares of vines I 1,400 chateaus I 150 million bottles a year