Rolf Bichsel - Best of Bordeaux

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Eleanor of Aquitaine was the granddaughter of William the Troubadour Duke

of Aquitaine, the wife of the French King Louis VII before an annulment was

granted. She was also a crusader and the incestuous lover of her uncle Raymond

of Poitiers. In 1151 she married the heir to the English throne Henry IIPlantagen-

et who was ten years her junior, for whom she produced eight children includ-

ing Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland whom Ivanhoe fans will know

from Walter Scott's chivalric novel, before instigating a plot against her husband

and consequently being imprisoned for ten years. There are numerous legends

about this determined lady. Only one of these is relevant to us, and it is demon-

strably true: thanks to her, Bordeaux came under English rule for 300 years, and

thus became the island kingdom's wine cellar, in top vintages brimming over

with the equivalent of Switzerland's current annual production.

Vines were then planted in the ‘palus' – fertile alluvial soils along the Garonne,

which to the west of the city joins up with the Dordogne, into which the Isle

flows at Libourne. This land definitely has no shortage of water. Bordeaux owes

its reputation not the greatest terroirs in the world, but instead to deep soils that

are rather unsuitable for top wines from today's perspective. The region pul-

sates to the rhythm of the tides and is shaped by a rainy Atlantic climate. This

once again demonstrates that terroir has as much to do with commercial policy

and a strategic transport location as it does with geology and climate.

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HistoryThe new French claret

The wines from these soils were a translucent, clear, bright red colour like

virtually all of the ‘red wines' produced in the cultivation area we now call

France up until the mid-19th century. The English called it claret, which in

Britain remains a synonym for Bordeaux to this day. These wines were not even

particularly elegant or refined, as people would sometimes have us believe.

Instead, they had a robust constitution in order to withstand the rigours of

shipping in reasonable condition and so that they only turned sour once poured

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

and his team will please you with seasonal high-quality ‘Slow Food' cui-

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

vegetarian, best meat and varied vegan dishes. Another great attraction is

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

a large variety of herbs and ‘Pro Specie Rara' fruits and vegetables.

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

you can relax. The Lake of Constance and the Alpstein mountains are also

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

CH-9404 Rorschacherberg

Phone +41 71 858 62 62

I

wartegg.ch

The organic Château

at Lake of Constance

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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