If it had not been for Monsieur Leon de Vidas, an aristocratic elderly Frenchman, with whom I stayed for a fortnight in Agen, in South West France, I would never have seen the original stunning rock face  paintings, done by Cro-Magnon man over 15,000 years ago, in the caves of Lascaux; nor would I have witnessed the harvest in Bordeaux, in one of its most fabulous vintages.

It was late September, 1961; the Lascaux paintings were soon after sealed off from public viewing, since the breath of the visitors was adversely affecting the millennia old paintings. By contrast, in Bordeaux, especially in the grand chateaux of the Medoc and Graves and Sauternes (the so called Left Bank, of the river Garonne and the Gironde estuary), unannounced and uninvited visitors were most unwelcome, unlike today when you are greeted with open arms, and given wine tastings.

So I glimpsed the chateaux from the road, watched the harvesters pick luscious ripe grapes by hand from the vineyards, while Monsieur de Vidas told me salient facts from the history of Bordeaux, and its importance in the wine world. I was besotted, both by Lascaux and by Bordeaux , and the very next year, in Easter 1962, I returned. 

First, I persuaded my Parisian friends, Alain Peskine, Nicole Nicaise, and Dominique Gaubert, to accompany me to the same places. Alain, a warm friendly giant of a man, had a Deux Chevaux (literally two horses, the most popular car in France ), and we set off from Paris in it. We used to stop in the evenings at a village, and my three French friends would talk to the locals about renting a room for the night. Since both Nicole and Dominique were very beautiful (I still have photographs to prove it), accommodation was offered instantly. Our ménage a quartre led to the most enjoyable complications : we slept in one room, often in one large bed, and the bathrooms seldom had doors ! I saw and experienced a different France from that shown to me by the gentlemanly and venerable father figure, Monsieur de Vidas.

The 1961 grapes had already been made into wine, and put in oak barrels for maturing. Thanks to the persuasive powers of my beautiful young friends I got to taste some of these legendary wines from the barrel. Thus began my life long affair with Bordeaux wines.

That same August I returned to Bombay and married Minakshi Godambe (literally “one whose eyes are shaped like a fish” and “sweet mangoes”, we celebrated our 45th anniversary this year); and both of us returned to London after the wedding, which we used as a base to visit the vineyards of Europe for the next 4 years.

 I had also been elected President of the Imperial College Student’s Union, (London University), and as part of my duties, I had to preside over the annual dinners of about 50 Societies, such as the Bell Ringers Club and the Conservative party society. I was, ex-officio, responsible for choosing the wines for these functions, and buying them. Thus I was initiated into the intricacies of wines, especially claret, as the English call Bordeaux red, by a Professor, the Head of the Chemical Engineering Department, a true bon vivant and connoisseur of wines and cigars. It was a  marvellous wine education.

We spent many afternoons and evenings sampling the wares of the wine merchants of London , and, inter alia, this is what he taught me.

“Firstly, young man”, he said, and I précis and paraphrase the great man’s words, “you are studying the wrong subjects, mathematics and mechanical engineering, you should have studied chemistry”.

“Why is that?” I asked. He  ignored me. Now let’s see, he ruminated, “You have never drunk great wine, you don’t know chemistry… do you like women ?”

“Yes”, I replied. He smiled enigmatically.

When you meet a woman you see how she is dressed, notice her fingernails, her shoes and handbag, her jewellery and handkerchief, it tells you a lot about her. So look at the wine bottle, its colour and shape, and you will know if it is a Bordeaux or a Burgundy , a Moselle or a Champagne .

Reading the labels on the bottle is like being properly introduced to a woman. It tells you about origin, home, upbringing, age and so on.  Now you know more than 50% of the wine without even opening the bottle (or talking at length to the woman).

Next take the bottle in your hand, remove the lead capsule with a sharp knife, wipe the cork and pull it out with a corkscrew. Smell the cork. Is it mouldy, musty ? Don’t go as far as tasting a wine which smells badly (reject the bottle), just as, if a woman has off-putting bodily odours, there should be no lip contact.

Pour a little wine in a wine glass. Taste it. Is it stale, flat, even sour? Surely you know such women.  The wine is overexposed (to the oxygen in the air). Open another bottle. You may be luckier.

Now take a decent amount in your mouth, let it roll over your tongue, releasing its flavours, savouring it, and only then swallow it. It should leave a pleasant after taste. If you don’t like the wine, if the aromas and flavours don’t please you, don’t order it again. There are some wines you will meet, though, which with the first smell and sip, are the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Have you heard of Jean Chaptal? No? He was a Minister in  Napoleon’s government.  He discovered that adding sugar to wine during fermentation makes it more alcoholic. But too much sugar ruins a wine. Too much alcohol makes the wine more viscous, less free flowing. But you practice reverse chaptalisation, don’t you ? When you give a little wine to a woman doesn’t she become sweeter? And more numbs her...

But like wine some women are naturally very sweet, like when they are mature, like grapes which are picked late and ripe, sometimes even shrivelled !

When grape juice ferments it becomes alcohol and carbonic gas. If the wine is bottled immediately, or if it ferments in the bottle, the gas can’t escape, especially if held down by a cork and a wire cage. What happens if a woman who has been bottled up and caged in for several years, suddenly opens up? She sparkles, she bubbles. There you have the “methode champenoise”.

The last function of the year was the President’s dinner. I was the host but he refused my invitation with a wry smile. “I am getting old, and you know enough to hold your own. Who are you escorting? What does she look like?” he asked.

“I have met her just once. She is a platinum blonde.” I replied.

“Well, young man, if you had been a chemical engineer, you would have known instantly if she was virgin metal or just a common (wh)ore.”

Another quote, “Men fall in love with women without understanding them. They then spend the rest of their lives unsuccessfully trying to develop such an understanding. Instead, if they only continued the loving, the world would be a much more joyous place. So it is with wine.”

The professor asked me to memorize the historic 1855 classification of the best growths of the Medoc, Graves, and Sauternes, which I did by 1975. (Only 61 in all, 5 first growths, 14 second growths, 14 third growths, 10 fourth growths, and 18 fifth growths, and there was also the very special designation given to Chateau d’Yquem : Premiere Cru Superiore). At the command of Napoleon III, this list was chosen by Bordeaux negociants based on the then highest current prices, out of over 10000 vineyards where wine was produced and sold.

The professor’s words still stand me in good stead, whenever I encounter a woman or a wine I would like to be friendly with: though nowadays, for me,  it is much easier to meet and savour good wine.

My wife and I stayed on in swinging London till 1966, during which time we used to give small wine dinners at home. The food was French, heavily influenced by the books of Elizabeth David, and also what we had learnt from various French families with whom we stayed in Paris, the Loire valley, Normandy, the South of France, and the French Alps.

But the wines we served and sipped were something else, always the best Bordeaux : we even drank Chateaux  Latour,  Margaux,  Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, and Haut Brion from the greatest vintages between 1945 and 1961, including the ’47, ’49, and ’53. We were not rich, but the wines were cheap. Yes, unbelievable as it sounds now, we never spent more than ten pounds for a bottle of the finest cru classe (classed growth) from very great vintages. I drank more extraordinarily sublime wine in the 1960s, than in any decade subsequently, though prices halved due the oil crisis in 1973, giving another buying and tasting opportunity.

The great Medoc properties, on the left bank, were in a miserable condition after the war, and they and their negociants were desperate to sell even the best wines at throw away prices. Here is a description of Chateau Latour (taken from that marvelous book, “The Wine Men” by Fiona Beeston): “In 1962 Chateau Latour seemed stuck in another century. The buildings were in a deplorable state, and so too was the estate: rows of vines had gaping holes left by uprooted plants; the egrappage, or separation of stalks from the grapes, was still done by hand; the cellar workers climbed dangerously up ladders carrying bins full of grapes, and emptied them into wooden vats that hadn’t been maintained for a good 80 years.”

In the seventies good and great wine was not available in India. I got an opportunity to taste them on my infrequent business trips to Europe. In the 1980s I lived for 7 years in Singapore, and had much greater possibilities to buy Bordeaux in Bordeaux itself, and also in Hongkong. Singapore was not wine savvy at the time, and so on my very frequent trips to California, Australia, and Europe, I tasted the local wines and also, always, Bordeaux.

However, first growth and other super star Bordeaux wines started shooting up in price in the early eighties and now are prohibitively expensive.

Robert Parker, the most influential and most widely followed wine critic in the world, became famous because of his accurate prediction of the 1982 vintage (basically “buy whatever you can”), against the so-so evaluation of others. This made his reputation. And prices shot up subsequently on his recommendations every year. Not only rich Americans, but also the Japanese, middle Easterners rich on oil revenues, the South East Asians, and then the Russians after glasnost and perestroika cornered the market, and prices of great Bordeaux have reached stratospheric levels, unaffordable to anyone who is not a multi millionaire.

I have been lucky, in the past ten years, to have been invited to some truly memorable sit down wine dinners held by renowned chateaux and other winemakers in Bordeaux, and to comparative wine tastings, both vertical (same wine, different vintages) and horizontal (same year, different wines), and that is how I get to taste and sip the finest wines in Bordeaux, more often than not, accompanied by superb food, the owner, and the wine maker.  For example, here is an account of one such dinner at Chateau Margaux:

For about 20 years now, the opening of VINEXPO in Bordeaux has been marked by a black tie dinner honouring the international press, a tradition started by Chateau Margaux. The event always takes place at one of the five first-growth châteaux, in the Medoc/ Graves (Lafite, Mouton, Latour, Margaux, Haut Brion), or at Chateau d’Yquem, in Sauternes, and the tradition continued in 2003 with 300 guests (owners of the 1855 Classed Growths as well as journalists from around the world) gathering at Château Margaux.

Mme. Corinne Mentzelopoulos, owner of Château Margaux, and Mr. Philippe Castéja, President of the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés du Médoc welcomed  journalists from 25 countries to this exceptional evening. Here I met legendary wine writers, while sipping Krug 1988 champagne on the beautifully maintained lawns of this most exquisitely proportioned and classical of all Bordeaux chateaux.

The sit down dinner was held in the château’s first-year barrel cellar. We were surrounded by casks of maturing Chateau Margaux, and the only lighting was festive candles, thus recreating a medieval ambience, including boys dressed in 18th century costumes whose trumpets announced each course. We enjoyed a menu created by Martial Enguehard (chef at Lenôtre and a Meilleur Ouvrier de France) that was accompanied by classed growth wines from the 1990 and 1985 vintages presented in several flights and distributed among the tables where the proprietors sat. I was at the table with the owner of Pichon Lalande, Madame May-Eliane de Lencqsaing, and of Langoa Barton, so we were served their wonderful wines. These were followed by bottles of Château Margaux 1983, for every table, one of the 7 greatest red wines I have had the luck to drink in my life. Then a Chateau d’Yquem 1988...

Of particular note was the presence of three holders of the title of Meilleur Sommelier du Monde i.e. ‘Best Sommelier in the World’ (Olivier Poussier, winner in 2000; Markus del Monego, 1998; and Philippe Faure-Brac, 1992) who offered their comments on the wines during the dinner, a great wine experience.

Finally, the evening ended with a mind blowing concert of black spirituals and songs by jazz singer Liz McComb, who had trained with Mahalia Jackson, and who gave an exceptional performance in Château Margaux’s underground second-year barrel cellar, which had extraordinary acoustics, and was holding the legendary 2000 vintage)  She was dazzling, improvising spectacularly, and had the distinguished gathering on their feet, including Hugh Johnson, dancing and clapping till 3 in the morning.

Another memorable wine dinner, this time not for the international press, but for specially invited guests, was held at Chateau Mouton Rothschild, to celebrate their 150th anniversary :

Chateau Mouton was acquired by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853. Chateau Mouton Rothschild was considered to be a second growth in the original 1855 classification, but in 1973 it was awarded its rightful place in the hierarchy by being upgraded to a first growth, due to the long and persistent lobbying, for 50 years, by the owner, Baron Philippe de Rothschild ( Lafite Rothschild nearby, was always a First Growth). In 1973,  Jacques Chirac was Minister for Agriculture, and played a major role in this change (the only one to be made to the sacrosanct 1855 list in 150 years). It also, I am sure, helped that an ex- Rothschild banker, Georges Pompidou, was President of France.

But most of all, what really made the difference was the dynamic Baron Philippe de Rothschild: he was instrumental in dramatically improving the quality of Mouton, he lobbied for Chateau bottling under controlled conditions instead of leaving it to negociants, a practice which became compulsory in 1972, he commissioned the greatest painters in the world, from Picasso to Balthus, a new artist every year, to design labels for his Grand Vin, (some of these are collector’s items, especially the Balthus for showing a full frontal naked girl in her early teens, maybe younger, lying back langorously, thus provoking puritanical America to ban it), and he started a great wine museum (a must see).

To celebrate the 150th anniversary, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild gave a black tie sit down dinner for 2000 people. Guests included Madame Chirac and Madame Pompidou, Catherine Deneuve,  former Prime Ministers of France, a glittering array of Europe ’s highest society, and legendary winemakers, such as the 90 year old Robert Mondavi. The Baroness even had a private Boeing 747 to ferry  600 Rothschild relatives from around the world to her dinner party in Bordeaux .

I was invited because I was to be inducted as a Commandeur d’Honneur of the “Commanderie du Bontemps--Medoc et Graves, Sauternes et Barsac “. The ceremony was solemnly conducted in French by the Grand Masters of the Order (Jean-Michel Cazes presided, his sister Sylvie read out the citations). Wearing medieval gowns, we were called one by one to stand on the stage, while our “achievements” were read out to the distinguished gathering. We were then given an impressive looking certificate. This Commanderie organizes, inter alia, a fabulous Fete de la Fleur every June (that is when the vines are in flower, hence the name).

On arrival at Mouton, cars had to be parked outside the chateau, then one walked through a long driveway, where at regular intervals stood elegant young men and women, holding silver trays with champagne flutes (I think it was Dom Perignon 1990, but I was afraid to ask). One helped oneself as one walked towards the chateau.

The dinner itself, with its complex logistics performed with military precision, started at 8 pm and lasted till 2 am. It was held in a beautiful marquee built of glass, constructed next to the vineyards, and set with 200 tables seating 10 each.

The first wine was Chateau Haut Brion Blanc 1999, absolutely one of my  favourite dry white wines, which is produced in such small quantities that it is the greatest luck to find even one bottle for sale, even at an extravagant price. The Baroness probably bought the whole vintage.

The second wine was a special cuvee labelled, naturally, Baron Nathaniel.

The third wine was a Chateau Margaux 1996 (a most puzzling choice, it was nowhere near ready to drink, still very tannic). The 4th wine was Mouton Rothschild 1982, a legendary vintage. It tasted much better than the same wine when I had drunk it due to the generosity of friends, or very occasionally, at home. The wine had been kept at the right temperature and humidity, in its own cellars, for over 20 years, and not moved around, throughout its long ageing process, and served at its peak. Its journey from the cellars to the tables was a couple of hundred metres.

This wine alone, served unstintingly to 2000 wine lovers, had a market value well in excess of a million dollars. Just one wine to accompany one course.

Then followed, with dessert, a magnificent Barsac, Chateau Coutet 1989. The wines, and the aperitifs, were served in twenty thousand gleaming Riedel wine glasses.

Huge floating screens of silk, suspended from the high roof, had the 150 year history of Mouton Rothschild projected on them, with images changing continuously. The great tenor, Placido Domingo, took the stage to sing famous arias. It was breath taking. An extraordinary display of fireworks was the finale. On departure,each guest was presented with a rare bottle of an Eau de Vie of Prunes, made for the occasion by the cellar master of Mouton.

The whole elegant affair was conducted with immense panache. There was not even the faintest hint of  nouveau riche or  arriviste behaviour. You needed uncountable wealth for centuries, and much practice, to be able to pull it off. Full credit to the charming Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, the owner-hostess.

The grand-daddy of all wine dinners was held at Chateau d’Yquem in 2005, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sacrosanct 1855 classification.The owner of Chateau d’Yquem, since 1999 is LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), and its Chairman and CEO, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, hosted the dinner. This was a unique wine dinner in every respect, held on the grounds of the world’s most famous vineyard. A few words about Yquem therefore will not be amiss here, then I’ll revert to the dinner.

If famous wine connoisseurs and wine writers were asked to name only one wine, which they consider the single greatest wine in the world, I feel confident 75 % would say “Chateau d’Yquem”.Yquem is also, and this is indisputable, the most difficult and expensive wine in the world to make.

The grapes have to first shrivel till they look disgusting i.e. they are afflicted with “noble rot”. In Sauternes, the confluence of two rivers, the Ciron, which hides in pine forests till it meets the warmer Garonne , results in fogs at night. This is conducive to the growth of the botrytis cinerea fungus on the Semillion grapes. From late September, 120 experienced pickers go through the 100 hectare Yquem vineyard, picking each rotten withered fungus covered grape (not bunch) by hand. This procedure is repeated over a period of several weeks. During that time rain storms or hail can wipe out most of the crop. It is a very tense period of Russian roulette.

The resulting yield is the lowest in the wine world. Each vine eventually produces only one glassful of the golden nectar ! The grapes are so concentrated, with such little juice, that massive presses are used to extract the juice. Then it is both fermented and kept in new small oak barrels for three and a half  years before the wine is released. The wines develop their fabulous fragrances and full flavours over 50 years, and often keep for a century longer.

If you don’t like “sweet” wines you haven’t tasted Yquem. It goes beautifully with foie gras or Roquefort cheese, or best of all, by itself, sipped meditatively over several hours, as it evolves and envelops your ecstatic senses. It is like having multiple orgasms with a profoundly sensuous lover. In this case, however, the older the better. Don’t drink an Yquem younger than the great 1983 vintage, ideally the 1967 or 1937.

Only 4 families have owned Chateau d’Yquem in the last 850 years i.e. the English Crown for 300 years, the Kings of France for the next 250 years, then the de Sauvage family, and from 1785, the Lur Saluces (the 2 families were related by marriage). The wine has been made by Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces since 1968. Chateau d’Yquem was sold by the family to the luxury group LVMH in 1999, but against the wishes of the Comte. The famous court battle was  covered in great detail and glee by the French media. However, the Comte’s family members couldn’t refuse the offer Arnault made, and the Comte, holding only a 12%  stake, had to face reality. The chateau changed hands for only the 5th time in its 1000 year recorded history. As someone remarked, the super-rich corporations are now the Kings of France. (Chateau Latour is owned by Arnault’s great business rival, Francois Pinault, so instead of him, his CEO at Latour, Frederick Engerer, was present at the dinner).

Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces continued to be in charge for a couple or so years till he retired at age 70. I was privileged to have dinner with the famously reclusive and aristocratic Comte at Chateau d’Yquem. The next morning I talked to him for hours at Yquem, fascinated by his extensive and deep knowledge, of wine and other things. Later he drove me in his car to his 500 year old ancestral home, Chateau de Fargues, 3 kilometers away. After tasting young Fargues and Yquem out of barrels, I could not tell the difference. Same winemaker, similar care for the vines and wines. The differences are evident after about 7 years in bottle. Buy as much Fargues as you can, it is much cheaper than Yquem. Buy Yquem, only the great years, if you are a patient young millionaire, or an impatient billionaire who attends auctions. In 2005 the Comte invited me to a small dinner at his home, Chateau de Fargues, where we tasted some wonderful vintages of de Fargues. This remains my favourite (and affordable) dessert wine.

The Chateau d’Yquem dinner was unusual in many respects.  Since it was the 150th anniversary of the famed 1855 classification, they had pulled out all the stops. All 61 proprietors (except one) of the classed growths were present at the black tie dinner, held in a specially built marquee, with the ancient floodlit Chateau on one side and the legendary vineyards on the other sides. The dinner started with aperitifs, many grand cru classe Sauternes and Barsac 1998 and 1999, served on the lawns of the chateau ; during the sit down dinner, we were served grand cru classe wines from the Medoc, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000, all superb vintages. The owners of the first growths, Chateaux Latour, Lafite, Mouton, Margaux, Haut Brion had brought magnums of their best vintages to be served at every table, (Haut Brion 1975, Latour 1978, Lafite 1979, Mouton 1982, Margaux 1983, all perfectly matured and ready to drink). Bernard Arnault most generously served the exquisite Yquem 1967 (one of the truly great vintages of the property) with dessert. Each one of the courses was prepared by a different, and famous chef : Ken Hom, Michel Guerard, and Michel Trama. Then followed the inevitable spectacular fireworks. Interestingly, various sweet Sauternes were served as aperitifs, and dinner was followed by Dom Ruinart champagne (inspite of the fact that at this lavish, no expense spared dinner, surely a Krug or Dom Perignon from a great vintage would have been more appropriate, considering LVMH owns all three brands.) In this respect I prefer the English taste of serving a dry champagne as an aperitif before dinner, and the sweet wine with dessert.

This dinner was covered by TIME magazine. They reported, inter alia,  that the Editor of the Chinese Edition of Vogue was seated at the top table ; after the meal she was asked politely what she thought of the wines. “I prefer Burgundy”, she replied. The shocked head honchos of Bordeaux averted their faces. Serves them right for not realizing that India is a far more sophisticated and better long term market than China .

I, as the only Indian journalist  present, made my little entry to the top table carrying an empty bottle of the Yquem ‘67. I went straight to Bernard Arnault and asked him to autograph it for my daughter Clea, who was born in ‘67. He inscribed and signed a sweet note on the label, chatted with me for minute, and when I turned round to return to my table, there was surprised silence everywhere. Evidently, I was told later, Arnault never ever gives autographs, nor does he indulge in small talk !.

Well, the above descriptions of 3 Bordeaux wine dinners should give you an idea of what they are like. There are many others held during and just before Vin Expo. As well as innumerable wine tastings at various chateaux, there are a vast number of stalls at Vin Expo. There you can meet famed winemakers from all over the world personally serving you their wines and discussing them with you. A fabulous way for one stop wine tasting and interacting with their makers. But be warned : for such an overwhelming wine education, you need immense stamina, very strong legs, and a passion for wine, otherwise you are not likely to survive for more than 8 hours, and then you go sheepishly back to where you came from, driven by a sober chauffeur hopefully. And this goes on for 4 days...!
 
The Right Bank :

The Right Bank is the wine region that is on the right bank, or north, of the river Dordogne. It includes the famed Pomerol and St. Emillion wines. The most obvious characteristic shared by these appellations, and distinct from the left bank, is that the dominant grape varieties are Merlot and Cabernet Franc rather than Cabernet Sauvignon (incidentally more Merlot is planted in Bordeaux than Cabernet Sauvignon). Also there are only red wines here; Pomerol seems to have no landmarks, and you can easily get lost driving along the small country roads. Pomerol, in fact has no classification given to its wines, though it contains within its boundaries the great Petrus and Le Pin (both selling at much higher prices than the first growths of the left bank), and one of my favourites, Vieux Chateau Certan.
 
Alexandre and Jacques Thienpont:

I would not have met Alexandre Thienpont but for my good friend Mark Walford, who knows just about every wine maker in Europe worth meeting (and they do meet you at their chateaux/domains, offer you their best vintages to try, etc. if the introduction is from Mark). The owner of Le Pin is Jacques Thienpont (Alexander’s cousin) who lives in Belgium with his wife Fiona Morrison MW, and their two young sons. Fiona is a Master of Wine (the most difficult and highest possible qualification in the wine world). Le Pin is a  five-acre plot of land in Pomerol that has only a small nondescript building with a cellar, and a pine tree, hence the name. I can’t afford Le Pin, but Alexandre has taken me at least thrice to taste it from different vintages, in its cellar. However, it was the success of Le Pin that inspired the vignerons of Saint-Emilion, the so called garagistes. And it was in Le Pin’s cellar, which is truly  a garage under an old farm house surrounded by vines, that  France ’s foremost wine writer and taster Michel Bettane first coined the phrase “vins de garage”. 

Chateau Le Pin was first produced in 1979 (when Thienpont bought it, the wine was sold in bulk before that). Le Pin was a hard sell at first but by the mid 1990s it had outstripped Petrus in price and, in some quarters, reputation..

Chateau Le Pin is planted with 92% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc.The very limited production of Chateau Le Pin ranges from 500 to 600 cases per year. Le Pin is exotic and hedonistic.

Alexandre is extremely slender, tall, and shy. Though he speaks perfect English, he prefers to articulate his thoughts in French. We have become good friends, having dined together in Bombay and London (courtesy Mark Walford), and lunched several times in St. Emilion. Invariably he invites me out to marvelous restaurants after the wine tasting at Vieux Chateau Certan and Le Pin. These wines remain, to this day, amongst the best wines I have sipped and savoured.

Jacques and Fiona are kind and generous, and when they invited my family and me for dinner, they served, amongst other very good wines, the great Vieux Chateau Certan 1947 !!
 
Jean-Francois Moueix :

Jean-Pierre Moueix, who died  at the age of 91, created the legend that is Petrus. His elder son, Jean-Francois, owns it now.  The wine has been made for over 30 years by his second son Christian.  I had lunch with Jean-Francois in his private dining room, and then he took me down to the cellar of Bordeaux Millesimes, which also he owns. It was a revelation. There were some 3 million bottles, stretching from the year 2000 to earlier than 1900. The wines are conservatively valued at 500 million dollars. The cellar is entirely self financed !

Jean-Francois had created a very limited edition of a beautiful wooden presentation box, a cube containing 9 bottles of the top most  wines from that very great vintage, 2000. My case is maturing slowly in a UK cellar. I am determined to live long enough to drink the fully matured Petrus and Cheval Blanc, but the Latour will have to wait for my grandsons to sip, savour, and honour 30 years from now.

Pétrus has a modest building. But it produces a fantastic red wine, from a 28 acre vineyard named in honor of St. Peter, and located in Pomerol, next to St. Emilion. It is only at this site that the topsoil and subsoil are composed of heavy clay rich in iron. The entire crop is harvested in one day. The grapes are picked in the afternoon, after the morning dew has evaporated. A meticulous selection ensures that only the most pristine fruit is vinified.

Encouraging concentration by limiting yield requires crop thinning from the time the grapes first appear. The process is referred to as a “green harvest.”  Christian began thinning the crop in 1971. It created a scandal. He was condemned by the other owners for destroying the Lord’s bounty - even the local priest joined in the condemnation. Green harvest was a very radical theory at the time. Now, of course, it’s common practice.

Petrus is virtually entirely Merlot. Fermented in cement vats, the wine is aged in 100 percent new oak barrels for 22 to 28 months. Pétrus is not filtered to preserve its remarkable richness.

Christian Moueix, who I have never met, is reputed to be a modest cautious man, and evidently eminently quotable : “Even if I thought I had the perfect wine, it’s one thing to drink such a wine with one’s wife, and quite something else to drink the same wine with someone else’s wife.”  “Men drink for pleasure, women are more discriminating.” The 1982 Petrus “is unpredictable. It truly absorbs the mood of the taster, so to evaluate the wine, you must be aware of what you did the night before; how was your breakfast, is the weather pleasant and so on.”

This is the only “right” attitude to wine. It cannot be separated from the occasion and the company.

I have visited Petrus several times for tastings, the most memorable being in June 2005, when the Managing Director of Bordeaux Millesimes, Dominique Renard conducted the tasting in the presence of the winemaker, and then to dinner at Renard’s home in St. Emilion, where we had some more memorable wines, including a
great Troplong-Mondot, with the charming and attractive owner, Christine Valette, present.
 
Jean-Luc Thunevin:

“When the history of Bordeaux is written, undoubtedly the hero will be Jean-Luc Thunevin,” so wrote Robert Parker somewhere. Thunevin is universally credited with being the first of the famous garagistes.  Imagine that you live in St. Emilion, it is the early 1990s, you don’t own vineyards let alone a chateau, and yet you set out to make a wine that would set the wine world on fire. How do you do it?

Thunevin started buying grapes, ruthlessly selected, from vineyards owned by others. He concentrated the grape juice by removing the water content, used micro-oxygenation, fermented the wine in new oak, matured it in his garage, and thus was born Chateau Valandraud. Imitation is the best form of flattery. Thunevin’s techniques have been copied  all over the world.

I was fortunate in that Thunevin invited my wife and myself to stay for 4 days with him in June, 2005. His house is modest, but for an indoor swimming pool. He hates tobacco smoke, but there is a small garden with ducks where I could indulge in my daily routine of a Havana, after tasting his various wines, as well as that of others (he is a well known wholesale wine merchant), and lunching and dining on the simple but excellent food cooked by his very charming and knowledgeable wife Murielle. (She too likes to smoke occasionally). Murielle owns and runs a superb Margaux property, Marjolla.

Thunevin nowadays owns vineyards, restaurants, and a flourishing wine business. He looks like Albert Camus. It was a real privilege to stay with him, and learn first hand how he makes his spectacular wines.

Unlike neighbouring Pomerol, which is essentially a flat unremarkable plateau (aside from its most remarkable wines), St. Emilion is one of the most beautiful villages in the whole of France . The center of town has steep roads and lanes, and from the top there is a spectacular view of the surrounding country side and vineyards. High up on the edge of a small plateau is one of the most famous Chateaux in Bordeaux : Chateau Ausone. It is, together with Cheval Blanc, officially ranked as the two top wines of St. Emilion. Cheval Blanc is owned by Bernard Arnault and his friend  Albert Freres from Belgium, and is very easy to visit, to taste their wines including the marvelous second wine, Le Petit Cheval.

Chateau Ausone, owned by the reclusive Alain Vauthier, by contrast, is very difficult to access. It was my luck that Vauthier went to school with Thunevin, has known and admired him ever since (the feeling is mutual), and dropped in everyday during our stay to swim in Thunevin’s pool. Naturally, when I expressed a desire to taste his wines, he promptly invited my wife and I to get into his car, and drove to his chateau, where he personally conducted a tasting of his wines and a tour of his cellars. The oldest record of a chateau in Bordeaux is supposedly Pape Clement (early 14th century, in Pessac ).  But as legend has it, Ausone’s  pedigree goes back two thousand years to the Roman consul (and poet) in Bordeaux, Ausonius, who retired in St. Emilion, and by some accounts, grew vines and made wines at the same place as Chateau Ausone (later named after him). I felt a sense of dizzying history in this historic medieval village. It was one of my finest moments with respect to wine, moving 2000 years between Ausonius and Thunevin, in the space of 20 minutes. 

The Manoncourts of Chateau Figeac:

I cannot leave the right bank without mentioning Chateau Figeac, one of my favourite St. Emilion wines. Owned for the past century by the most charming Manoncourt family, it was at one time a much bigger estate, including, inter alia, Cheval Blanc. The owners lived in Paris and elsewhere, and as absentee landlords, whenever they needed money, sold off parcels of their land.  The Manoncourts put a stop to all that. Though the management of the estate has passed to their children, the couple, who are in their eighties, are most sprightly, full of understated enthusiasm, and charmingly friendly. It was an honour to meet them and converse with them, and taste their wines.

Madame May-Eliane de Lencqsaing:

Back to the left bank, in the Medoc I have experienced the warmest hospitality possible from that grand and legendary lady, , owner till a year ago of the “super” second growth Chateau Pichon Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande. Her nephew, Comte Gildas d’Ollone and I have become good friends, because of his several visits to India, and mine to Paulliac, where I have been invited to stay, have had several lunches with Madame and the Comte, with the best vintages of Pichon Lalande, certainly a ‘super’ second. The most memorable lunch was the one on the occasion of Madame’s 80th birthday 2 years ago, with the whose who of the wine world in attendance. (Note: the phrase “super” second growth is used by wine writers and retailers, it has no official sanction. In some years they are the equal of their neighbouring first growths).

Patrick Maroteaux:

Patrick Maroteaux, and his charming wife Evelyne, owners in St. Julien of Chateau Branaire (Ducru), have been my hosts for several days at a time, on two separate occasions. One is, as a guest, really treated like a king. I can think of nowhere I’d rather stay in Bordeaux than with this warm couple. They are immensely popular in Bordeaux society, can arrange a meeting at short notice with just about anyone, and have a most helpful staff, who can organize just about everything.

Besides, their wine is an excellent example of a St. Julien: I have been fortunate to have tutored tastings from the 1989 vintage onwards twice, both conducted by Maroteaux. And to several exquisite lunches and dinners to accompany the wines.

Patrick let’s me use his personal computer in the chateau, though there is an office elsewhere in the chateau, shares his exquisite Havanas with me in his study, invites me stay even when his wife and he are not in residence. The domestic staff is so discreet that I have never seen them, even though my palatial room, walk-in cupboard and dressing room, and attached bathroom overlooking the vineyards, are immaculately cleaned and tidied up twice a day.
 
Jean-Guillaume Prats:

He manages the “super” second growth Chateau Cos d’Estournel, has invited me to some marvelous lunches and dinners at the Chateau, which has an Oriental façade, and a long history of exporting wines to India . We became good friends. In March 2002 Jean-Guillaume invited a friend and me to a most exquisite lunch at Cos d’Estournel . The wines served to the three of us were : Roederer Cristal, Mouton Rothschild 1993 (with the infamous Balthus drawing), and Cos d’Estournel 1986. Only such wines could surpass the exquisite food of Prats’s Portugese chef, who unfortunately whisked away my half full plate as I was dawdling too long savouring the wines. Havanas and Cognacs followed. At dinner the next year Jean-Guillaume served Dom Perignon 1995, and Cos d’Estournel 1985, 82, 70, followed byYquem 1986... Wow!
 
Alfred Tesseron:

This   Cognac king, whose Chateau Pontet -Canet produces superb wines after Tesseron took it over. Close to the Rothschild vineyards, the above two chateaux (the first in St.Estephe, the other in Paulliac), have proprietors who are extremely friendly, and always offer the best Havanas and Cognac after the meal (something I value a great deal). 
 
Jean-Michel Cazes:

My other very good acquaintance is Jean-Michel Cazes, with whom I have had a very long conversation, and whose 5th growth wine , Chateau Lynch Bages, is a favourite of mine. Cazes is an iconic figure in Paulliac, owns the only luxury hotel Cordeillan Bages, with a 2 Michelin star restaurant, in Paulliac (an excellent place to stay when touring the Medoc), and is generally consulted by just about everyone in Bordeaux and beyond, and not only with respect to wine.

The best alternative to staying in a chateau or Cazes’s expensive hotel, is to stay in a smaller, much cheaper hotel in the picturesque Paulliac marina with a view of the Gironde estuary as it flows into the Atlantic, taking with it a quarter of the waters of France. I once met in one of the restaurants there Michael Broadbent having a quiet dinner with his wife, on the table next to the one where my wife and I were dining. He had like myself got a bit tired of the formal and great wine dinners at the best chateaux. Broadbent  is universally recognized as having tasted more great wines from more vintages than any one else, from as long ago as 3 centuries to the present day. He has kept meticulous tasting notes which are published in his books (all of them essential reading). He is tall, slim, most courteous, and was head of  Christie’s Wine department for decades. Here is what he writes in “The Bordeaux Atlas and Encyclopedia of Chateaux”,  by Hubrecht Duijker and Michael Broadbent ), an indispensable book :

“Paulliac itself is a small town for which I have always had a soft spot – particularly the long straight riverside avenue, one side flanked by undistinguished houses, restaurants... all facing the normally placid grey-green river, with a jetty and a small marina. At this point, the Gironde is surprisingly wide-some 5 kilometres... the atmosphere somehow always reminds me of a sleepy Venezuelan oil port, with the tide out.” Check the internet for hotels here.

Prince Robert of Luxembourg:

Along with the Duchesse de Mouchy (his mother), the prince owns the fabulous properties of first growth Chateau Haut Brion, La Mission Haut Brion, etc.  Both the reds and the whites of these chateaux are truly remarkable (Haut Brion is the world’s first branded wine, made famous in the London of mid 17th century by the then owner ‘Pontac’). Prince Robert, a very tall man, lives in London , and flies down to Bordeaux as often as needed.  I have had the pleasure of tasting his many wines, in his presence, at Haut Brion, and also at Le Gavroche, in London, when Mark Walford invited me to a special dinner hosted by the legendary chef-owner Albert Roux, and Prince Robert of Luxembourg. If I were restricted to only one chateau in the whole of Bordeaux whose wines I could drink, undoubtedly I would choose Haut Brion.

My favourite wines (other than those mentioned in the main body of the article) are from Chateau Leoville Las Cases, Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, Chateau Gruaud Larose, all “super” second growths in St. Julien; Chateau Chasse Spleen and Chateau Poujeaux in Moulis; Chateau Haut Bailly and Domaine de Chevalier in Pessac-Leognan: riussec and Suidurat in sauternes; La Fleur Petrus and L’Evangile in Pomerol; Pavie, Angelus, and La Mondotte (very rare and expensive) in St. Emilion.

A must visit restaurant in Bordeaux city is La Tupina (called “the second best bistro in the world”, by Patricia Wells, writing in the International Herald Tribune). Well, it is that and much more. The owner, Jean-Pierre Xiradakis, has put together a very reasonably priced menu of terrific food and wines at La Tupina (meaning ‘the cauldron’). It is expectedly packed, reservations essential (Tel : +33 (0)5 56 91 56 37 ). On one of my visits, when I was alone, I had a memorable experience. I had ordered ‘scrambled eggs’ or ‘ouefs brouilles’ as a starter, a popular appetizer in France . It came, I tasted, it was terrible. I called the waiter and, while rejecting the dish, offered to cook it myself. (Don’t ever offer such a challenge unless you are totally confident; I have been cooking scrambled eggs, the soft creamy variety, nary a lump, for 60 years. It takes 20 minutes of constant stirring over a very low flame). Jean-Pierre Xiradakis somehow got to hear of this, and immediately after my meal was over, invited me downstairs where he holds court every evening. He offered me the finest Armagnacs and Cognacs to accompany the inevitable Havana cigar. More importantly, he gave me a little booklet, listing all the small chateaux where he buys his wines. He offers a car tour of these vineyards (6 different one day tours with detailed directions, where to eat, where to sip the wine etc.). Very highly recommended, this is the best way of getting to know the vrai Bordeaux .

It is June 2007. I have the following invitations :

15th June, La Duchesse de Mouchy and le Prince Robert de Luxembourg invite me to a sit-down dinner at La Mission Haut-Brion ;

16th June, an invitation from the proprietors of Chateau Haut Bailly to a sit down dinner prepared by the world famous Parisian 3 Michelin star chef Alain Passard, preceded by a degustation of the best 16 growths of Pessac-Leognan in the presence of their proprietors ;

17th June: dinner on the terrace of Chateau Pichon Lalande ; hosted by Madame May-Eliane de Lencqsaing and Frederic Rouzaud (owner of Roederer champagne, and the new owner of Pichon Lalande) -the Roederer Cristal is my favourite Champagne;

17th June (too bad about the clashing date), dinner at Domaine de Chevalier, in the presence of legendary wine makers from across Europe ;

18th June: an invitation to a sit down dinner hosted by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild and Philippe Casteja at Chateau Mouton Rothshild ; this preceded by a separate invitation from Jean-Francois Moueix (Le Groupe Duclot) to taste the top 9 Bordeaux Grand Crus (including Petrus)  from the 2001 vintage, also the top 9 vintage champagnes, the top 9 vintage 2003 ports etc. Fortunately the tasting starts at 5 pm , enough time in a chauffeur driven car to reach the Rothschild dinner on time;

19th June: an invitation from Alexandre Thienpont to taste 11 great wines (including Le Pin) in the company of their proprietors, with a sit down lunch to follow at Vieux Chateau Certan.

And so on including the Fete de la Fleur to end Vin Expo.....I am honoured and privileged to receive  such exclusive personal invitations.

We have come a long way from the unwelcoming austerities of Bordeaux  in 1961 to the lavish generosity of this century.