Best of Bordeaux. Rolf Bichsel

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       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.

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       History Overview

       56 BC Crassus 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 BC Pliny visits Bordeaux – the city is entirely surrounded by vines.

       400 AD The teacher and rhetorician Ausonius describes Bordeaux as ‘charac-

      terised by rivers and vines'.

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

      tant export product and ensures the wealth of its inhabitants.

       1214 The 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.

       1241 Henri 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.

       1303 Bordeaux 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.

       1660 François-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.