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
The organic Château
at Lake of Constance
22
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
