Summer Sparklers

An ice cold glass of sparkling wine is instant refreshment on a hot sunny day and we have been savouring the bubbles for over 300 years here in the UK. There is documentary evidence that sparkling wine was first intentionally produced by English scientist and physician Christopher Merrett in 1662 - at least 30 years before the work of the monk Dom Perignon. However the first commercial sparkling wine was produced in the south of France in Limoux area of Languedoc about 1535.

The 2000 year old village of Limoux lies close to the Spanish border in the foothills of the Pyrenees and claims to be the birthplace of sparkling wine. In the mid 16th century, monks of the Abbey of St. Hilaire developed a method of making sparkling wine almost 200 years before their rivals to the north in Champagne. Coincidentally the famed Dom Perignon passed through Limoux before moving to Champagne – maybe he gained his inspiration from his time spent there?

The sparkling wine from Limoux is known as Blanquette and although is not as widely known as Champagne, its taste has attracted buyers from around the world, including, Russian Czar Nicolas II and Japanese Emperor Akihito. Blanquette is made with a blend of three white grapes - Mauzac, Chenin and Chardonnay.

Sparkling wine from the north of France is known as Crémant d'Alsace – cremant is the French word for "creaming" - this means that they are made with slightly more than half the pressure of champagne. This doesn’t give them any less sparkle but makes a wine with a fizzy mousse of bubbles and a delicious refreshing tingle on the tongue. Crémant d’Alsace is the market leader in at-home sales of AOC sparkling wines in France. It’s an undiscovered gem. It’s a favourite of those vintners who make Champagne and you’ll find it gracing most celebrations and parties in France.

Crémant is a sparkling pinot and Crémant d’Alsace Joseph Pfister (£8.49) is made from Pinot Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes. The grapes are a careful blend which results in a pale yellow wine with a dense, fine mousse of frothy bubbles that lasts right down to the bottom of your glass. Champagne can run out of fizz but Crémant just doesn’t seem to go flat! It is very fruity on the nose with definite hints of apricots and plums.

If you are tempted to make some summer punches or cocktails with sparkling wine then try these:

D'Artagnan

½ shot Armagnac
½ shot Grand Marnier
1 shot orange juice
½ tsp sugar syrup
Cremant d'Alsace

Chill the first 4 ingredients in a mixing glass and strain into a flute glass. Top with the Cremant d'Alsace and add long strips of orange peel.

La Vie en Rose

½ shot rose water
1 sugar cube (or 1 tsp sugar)
Cremant d'Alsace

Rose water is easy to make – gather some rose petals (the dark red ones are best), wash and add to boiling water and allow to cool.

Soak the sugar cube in the rose water (or mix the granulated sugar and rose water together). Put the ingredients into a flute glass. Garnish with a strawberry.

Enjoy!

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Can Red Wine Cancel Cancer Caused by Red Meat?

If you believe the hype the answer is Yes. However the red meat in the much quoted Israeli study was actually minced Turkey thighs. This is causing confusion with some of the press head lining “How drinking red wine with your steak cancels out cancer causing effects of red meat” (Daily Mail) Red meat in culinary terminology refers to meat which is red coloured when raw whereas red meat in nutritional terminology refers to meat from mammals. Birds aren't mammals so does Turkey qualify as red meat? Not in my book.

Traditionally red wine is drunk with red meat and the research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem seems to prove a medical rationale for this (if you ignore the debate on the definition of red meat). The study by Joseph Kanner and colleagues was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Scientists attribute wine's health benefits in fighting cancer and heart disease to the high levels of polyphenols (antioxidants) found in red wine. Until now, however, Scientists have been perplexed as to how the substances work to do this.

The researchers discovered that rats fed on a diet of red meat and red wine concentrate had substantially reduced formation of two by products of fat digestion, malondialdehyde and hydroperoxide, which are toxic to cells. They have found that the stomach acts as a "bioreactor" that facilitates the beneficial effects of polyphenols. The polyphenols work not only to prevent generation of cytotoxic compounds, but also as compounds which prevent the absorption of cytotoxic compounds from the gastrointestinal tract into the blood stream.

Over the past few years we have been warned that a high content of red meat in our diets is bad for us – causing heart disease and cancer. It's hard to find a simple answer as to why this is the case. Red meat does contain a lot of saturated fat – although it's interesting to note that beef from cattle fed on grass contains a lot less when compared to cattle fed on corn. This poses a problem for me as I love red meat – the rarer the better – and a lean steak is pretty tasteless when compared to one marbled with fat. The fat gives the meat its flavour. It''s a good thing that I wash it down with a glass of wine!

Scientist, Serge Renaud, pioneered the concept of the French Paradox (low heart disease despite high fat intake) and in a famous broadcast in 1991 he demonstrated that wine could reduce the risk of coronary disease by at least 40%. According to Renaud, moderate and regular consumption of wine interrupts the growth of all micro-organisms, the cause of disease in man, and maintains good levels of cholesterol while increasing the flexibility and diameter of the arteries.

Renaud was inspired by his personal experience of growing up around Bordeaux:

"You know instinctively that wine is good for you. My parents, all their friends, lived to 80 or 90. I knew there was some special reason."

More recently Roger Corder, Professor of Experimental Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute in London, published his book The Wine Diet (which was serialised in the Telegraph) on the health benefits of red wine based on his research into the French Paradox. See Sue's Blog: The Wine Diet and my Red Wine As A Cure For Cancer and Diabetes? for more details.

Judging from the rash of red wine pills now available on the market there is a growing belief in red wine containing the elixir of life . . . however I prefer to take my dose via the glass! If like me you enjoy your food and wine, my suggestion would be to eat and drink in moderation and be merry for tomorrow you never know what’s around the corner!

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Prince Charles Fuels Car With Wine

The Press have reported that Prince Charles has converted his 38 year old Aston Martin (given to him as a 21st birthday present by the Queen) to run on fuel made from surplus English wine. I blogged about wine being converted into bio fuels last year (see: Wine Fuels More Than Our Taste Buds) and Brussels spends half a billion euros a year in distilling poor quality wines into fuel. Prince Charles wanted his Aston to be environmentally friendly and converted it to run on bioethanol in an effort to reduce his carbon footprint.

The Prince has already hit his target of cutting carbon emissions by 12.5% by 2012, in line with the Government's Kyoto target. He has now doubled the target to a 25% fall in emissions by 2018. The amount of CO2 produced by Prince Charles has fallen by 18% or 630 tons to 2,795 during 2007-08.

The Prince's chief aide Sir Michael Peat said:

'Charles only travelled two or three hundred miles a year in the Aston but he wanted it to be environmentally friendly. It just happened that our bioethanol supplier makes the fuel from surplus English wine.'

Clarence House officials said the cut was due to a switch to “green” electricity supplies and a further reduction in travel-related emissions. The cost of the Prince’s official travel by air and rail fell 22% from £1.4million to £1.1million. The royal train, which Prince Charles and Camilla use to travel to certain engagements, has also been converted to run on biofuel produced by a Gloucestershire company.

Prince Charles uses a a twin turbo-propelled private charter plane as it is substantially cleaner and emits less CO2 than a jet plane.

Current biofuels are not suitable for use in aviation as aviation fuels must stay liquid at low temperatures, and have high energy content by volume. As yet there is no ‘bio’ equivalent of kerosene, the petroleum-derived fuel currently used for aviation.

Last year Prince Charles had his 2 Jaguars and his Audi converted to biofuel (made from cooking oil) and tried out a number of new eco-cars at Hampton Court Palace, London when he launched the Brighton-to-London Eco-Car Rally. During the event, the Prince met engineers from leading car manufacturers and saw a number of cars that use potential future fuels and technologies. Prince Charles took the opportunity to take some of the newest vehicles for a spin including some that are powered by hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen ICE, hybrids and biofuels.

The Prince drove a Honda Civic Hybrid – an automatic petrol and electric motored car that was launched in 2006. Sales went up by 500% in 2007. The Prince also drove a Saab Bio-power 9-3 convertible which runs on bio-ethanol E85 made from fermented plant matter, a 7 Series BMW Hydrogen 7 and a silver Ford Focus Fuel Cell which both run on hydrogen.

There are 5 biodiesel plants in the UK, producing 514,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year. By 2008 there will be 8 plants producing 1,314,000 tonnes. For bioethanol, there are 4 plants planned and in construction. Total capacity by 2008 is expected to be 580,000 tonnes per year. By 2010, total production capacity will be between 4-5% of the UK’s road transport fuel usage. This is in line with the EU’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) which requires 5% biofuel inclusion in all road transport fuel by 2010.

So well done to Prince Charles for leading by example and doing his bit in reducing carbon emissions from his vehicles – I am sure this will go a long way to really get the ball rolling for car manufacturers to come up with alternative sources of power for their engines. Apparently vehicles were powered in the Second World War by alcohol as petrol was in such short supply so using wine as an energy source isn’t new!

If the technology is there why is it that no one has developed an engine to be powered by alcohol before now? – or have they? Not that I can ever see the major chateaux owners filling their cars up from their vats – can you imagine that at Chateaux Margaux?

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Château Mouton Rothschild

Château Mouton Rothschild is one of the most sought after wines in the world but until 1973 it was excluded from First Growth status – this had nothing to do with the unquestionable quality of its wines. The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux's wines was ordered by Emperor Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle de Paris – a grand exhibition following on from London's Great Exhibition in 1851. Napoleon requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines which were to be displayed to the visitors from around the world. Brokers from the wine industry ranked the wines according to a château's reputation and trading price – which was directly related to quality at that time.

Despite Château Mouton Rothschild's prices equalling those of Château Lafite Rothschild (owned by another branch of the Rothschild family) Mouton was not granted First Growth status. Château Mouton Rothschild had been bought by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853 but was classified as a Second Growth – perhaps due lack of a grand château or because Mouton was now in foreign hands (Nathaniel was from the English branch of the Rothschild family). However it seemed clear that an error had been made.

Château Mouton Rothschild itself dates back to 1311 when it was originally known as Château Brane Mouton and was owned by the Knight Pons de Castillon. It was in English hands by the 15th century when it was gifted to the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of Henry V, but returned to French hands after the Hundred Years War. There are 2 stories of how the Château got its name one is that it is from the gravel “motte” or hill that it is situated on and the other is that it is from the French word “mouton” for sheep due to the grazing pasture that surrounds the estate.

The vineyards of Château Mouton Rothschild lie on gravelly soil over a subsoil of sand and clay which lie on limestone bedrock. They are sit on a mound or motte 40m high and the average age of the vines is 50 years old. The grapes grown are 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot. There are also Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, for the estate's white wine. Château Mouton Rothschild's wines are concentrated and intense with notes of dried black and red fruits, spice, black currants, raspberries, caramel, minerals and oak. The wines are creamy with good depth and complexity. They are polished, firm and weighty wines but are well balanced.

After Baron Nathaniel's death in 1870 his son, Baron James, built a small Château and named it Le Petit Mouton, which is now also the name of Mouton's second wine. It was Baron Philippe who transformed the future of Mouton. During his 65 years he revolutionised wine making in Bordeaux: one of his first actions was to change to bottle the wine at the château. In the past the norm was to sell the wine in barrel. A new chai was designed where the wine would be housed after fermentation but prior to bottling. The new bottles were to bear labels designed by famous artists and were signed by Philippe himself as a guarantee of quality from the château.

In 1946, this became a permanent and significant aspect of the Mouton image with labels created by some of the world's great painters and sculptors. See Ladies With Bottle: Château Mouton Rothschild's New 2005 Label for more details. The only exception to date is the unusual gold-enamel bottle for 2000. To celebrate the hundredth birthday of the acquisition of Château Mouton Rothschild, the portrait of Baron Nathaniel Rothschild appeared on the 1953 label. Older bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild have become collectable due to the popularity of the labels.

Baron Philippe also rectified the château's classification in 1973 by campaigning until the French Government passed a decree conferring the status of First Growth on Mouton. The labels on the bottles now read: “Premier je suis, second je fus. Mouton ne change”, or “First I am, second I was. Mouton does not change.” Today the estate is run by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild who has continued to improve the château's wines as well as expanding abroad, creating Opus One in California and Escudo Rioja in Chile.

If you are interested in Château Mouton Rothschild's labels and the artists who created them check out www.theartistlabels.com. If you can’t stretch to Mouton Rothschild’s but you like Claret visit our site for very affordable Bordeaux reds at www.bordeaux-undiscovered.co.uk

Bordeaux Wine Sorbets

Wine sorbets are becoming high fashion in the USA with sorbet sommeliers and new ventures cropping up offering ever more delicious flavours. New York has passed a new law which states that ice cream makers won't need a liquor license, but can't sell to anyone under 21-years-old and their products can't contain more than 5 percent alcohol. You would have to eat 2 gallons of wine ice cream or one pint of wine sorbet for it to equal just one glass of actual wine.

Wine Cellar Sorbets, Glacé de Vino and Mercers Dairy (who I blogged about in Wine Flavoured Ice Cream last year) are all companies in the states offering wine sorbets and ice creams. I haven't seen any wine sorbets in the UK for sale off the shelf yet but they are really easy to make so I have some recipes for you to try.

Sorbets are simply frozen desserts whose origins came from the Middle East. The word sorbet is the French for the Ottoman Turkish word Sherbet. Sorbets which contain alcohol have a lower freezing temperature, resulting in a softer texture.

The Roman Emperor Nero is credited with inventing sorbet during the 1st century A.D. when he had runners along the Appian way pass buckets of snow hand over hand from the mountains to his banquet hall where it was then mixed with honey and wine. The Chinese have also made concoctions made from snow, juice, and fruit pulp for several thousand years. Frozen desserts are believed to have been brought to France in 1533 by Catherine de Medici when she left Italy to marry the Duke of Orleans, who later became Henry II of France. By the end of the 17th century, sorbet was served in the streets of Paris and spread to England and the rest of Europe.
I have used the wines from Bordeaux-Undiscovered Montagnac range to make these sorbets – they are full of flavour and cost £3.15.

Merlot and Cinnamon Sorbet

1 bottle of Montagnac Merlot
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, continue to heat for about 5 mins. Remove the cinnamon stick. You can either use an ice cream maker to freeze the sorbet or you can put it in the freezer and whip it with a fork every couple of hours as you would making a gratina. Once it has the texture you like, freeze.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Blackberry Sorbet

1 lb blackberries
½ bottle Montagnac Cabernet Sauvignon
½ cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Purée the blackberries and sieve to remove the seeds. Put the blackberry purée, wine, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Follow directions above to freeze.

Sauvignon Blanc and Pineapple Sorbet

1 pineapple, peeled and cored
½ bottle Montagnac Sauvignon Blanc
1 cup sugar

Purée the pineapple, wine and sugar. Follow directions above to freeze.

These make delicious desserts which are refreshing and palate cleansing – perfect for summer! Enjoy!

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Wine To Be Transported by Sailing Ships

Back In February I blogged about Frederic Albert and his Compagnie de Transport Maritime a la Voile shipping wine from the Languedoc by sail boat to Ireland - method last used in the 1800's. The 60,000 bottles of wine were shipped shipped in a 19th century barque, the Belem, saving 18,375lbs of carbon. Although the whole process will end up taking up to a week longer than a flight, it is estimated it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle, move 50 trucks off the road every week and cut carbon emissions by 80%. This development has created a great deal of interest with some 250 wine producers in Languedoc alone, keen to use Frederic Albert's ships delivering "green" wines. The Belem is the first of seven ships planned to be working by 2013.

This innovative idea is now being taken further – thousands of miles further – the Ashronia Christian Cadet & Mission Ship Association (a registered charity) is seeking interested parties that can sponsor their request for financial assistance to build a new 200ft sailing Barquentine called the Sovereign of the Seas to ship wine from Australia.

The West Australian sailing ship could be used to transport Australian "green" wines via other ports of call on passage to the UK to deliver some 450 tons of the best wines, using as natural a product as possible to distributors in countries like the USA, UK, New Zealand, South America and Canada. A return cargo of non-perishable foods from various supermarkets would be delivered back into the Food Banks of Western Australia to be distributed out to the poor and needy. Frederic Albert considered this to be an excellent idea.

The Sovereign of the Seas will be built at the Henderson, Western Australian Tenix Ship Building yard. However vineyard producers and distributors that can supply their wines for transport to overseas destinations on commercial freight rates are needed. This will be a huge saving of carbon emissions in transporting 450 tons per cargo to world markets. The cargo of some 900.000 bottles of wine will be a saving 135 tons of CO 2 carbon emissions and would use 75% less fuel than shipping or road haulage which contribute sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. By comparison, a long sea voyage from Australia to the UK - a voyage of some 120 days - would reduce co2 emissions equivalent to that which 30 cars produce in a year.

The Sovereign of the Seas will be 450 tons and is to be built as a replica of the "Barden" which visited the ports of Rockingham in Western Australia and Hobart in Tasmania to load a cargo of timber in 1892. In keeping with today's technology, this vessel shall be transformed into a modern day sailing ship that will have all the advanced navigation aids, rigging and accommodation and will be built to the highest standards as set out by the Australian Maritime Authority. However the vessel shall be traditional in every other way and updated with sea proven technology as it shall have the role of a Cargo-Cadet Training Sailing Ship that would be built as a commercial vessel. It will be fitted with stainless steel standing rigging as the primary support system for all the masts. This is state of the art construction as it never rusts, lasts almost indefinitely at sea, weighs less than alternatives and offers less wind resistance. Similarly nylon rope halyards, Dacron sails and hydraulic power winches at the base of each mast will further update this timeless form of transport to present day technological standards.

If you would like to help or are interested in taking part in this project please contact us here at Bordeaux-Undiscovered and we can put you in touch with the Ashronia Christian Cadet & Mission Ship Association or contact their web site at www.ashronia.org

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Château Malescot St Exupéry and the Little Prince

You may be wondering why Château Malescot St. Exupéry sounds familiar – it was the wine that charmed a dangerous burglar (see Ladies With Bottle: Bordeaux Beats the Burglar) in Washington D.C. The robber held up a dinner party at a Capitol Hill, brandishing a gun and threatening to shoot. One party guest offered him a glass of the wine they were drinking to calm him – it was a glass of Château Malescot St. Exupéry. The intruder took a sip and remarked "Damn, that's good wine." The guests offered him the whole bottle, and in a change of heart, the intruder put the gun away and asked for a group hug before he left.

Château Malescot St. Exupéry is certainly a wine that could charm anyone – its known for their seductive bouquet of raspberries and violets. The wine has a silky quality and is dense, well structured and expressive. The flavours are of spice and blackcurrant with a good presence of acidity. Château Malescot St. Exupéry is classified as a Third Growth (3ème Cru) and dates back to the 1600s and its vineyards neighbour Château Margaux.

The château takes its name from Simon Malescot, King's Counsel to Louis XIV at the Parliament of Bordeaux. After the French Revolution the château was bought by Count Jean Baptiste St Exupéry - the grandfather of the famous aviator and writer Antoine de St Exupéry - and the château gained is double barrelled name.

Antoine de St Exupéry is most famous for his novella The Little Prince, and is also well known for his books about aviation adventures, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. In the 1920s Saint Exupéry became one of the pioneers of international postal flight, in the days when aircraft had few instruments. He worked on the Aeropostale between Toulouse and Dakar.
In 1935, after a flight of 19 hours and 38 minutes, Saint Exupéry, along with his navigator, André Prévot, crashed in the Libyan Sahara Desert on route to Saigon. Their plane was a Caudron C-630 Simoun. They were attempting to fly from Paris to Saigon faster than any previous aviators, for a prize of 150,000 francs.

Both survived the landing, but were faced with the prospect of rapid dehydration in the Sahara. According to his memoir, wind, Sand and Stars, their sole supplies were grapes, one orange, and a ration of wine. (I wonder if it was Château Malescot St. Exupéry?). Finally, on day four, a Bedouin on a camel discovered them, saving Saint Exupéry and Prévot's lives. Saint Exupéry's book The Little Prince, which begins with a pilot being marooned in the desert, is in part a reference to this experience.

Saint Exupéry's final assignment was during the Second World War when he was flying a a P-38 Lightning to collect intelligence on German troop movements in and around the Rhone Valley preceding the Allied Invasion of Southern France in 1944. He left from an airbase on Corsica, and was never seen again.

In 1955 Malescot St Exupéry was purchased by the Zuger family who invested heavily in the estate, and today it is run by Jean Luc Zuger. The Zuger family have invested in the château for the last 5 decades and Château Malescot St. Exupéry is one of the most quality driven of the Margaux crus. The château is living up to its motto: “Semper ad altum,” ever higher.

Château Malescot St Exupéry's 85 acres of vineyards lie on 5 separate parcels of land. The soil is the typically deep gravel of Margaux. These soils, partly due to their position up-river where they drain the Pyrenees, are the most refined of the Médoc. The gravel covers a subsoil of clay rich in iron oxide and there is a bedrock of chalk and limestone. The grapes grown are 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot.

So next time you spot a bottle of Château Malescot St Exupéry remember the history and the people behind the wine and if you are tempted to try some you can find the wines at ww.interestinwine.co.uk. If this wine is out of your price range (around £30 a bottle) why not look at the selection of very affordable clarets Bordeaux Undiscovered has to offer?

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Healthy White Wine

The health benefits of red wine have been hitting the news this year and now a group of scientists from Israel have come up with a white wine with the same health benefits. This isn't new – last year www.sciencedaily.com reported that a new study suggested that white wines may be just as good for the heart as red - see my Blog White Wine Is As Good For You As Red.

Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology, have developed a way to boost white wine polyphenols 6-fold. The technique basically involves making white wine in a similar manner to how red wine is made. The juice of most grapes is clear and the red colour comes only from the skins of red/black grapes. To make white wine the juice is squeezed out from the grapes and fermented. To make red wine the skins and the juice are fermented together and the colour is extracted from grape skins. Normally white grapes are not left on the pulp as long as red grapes when making a white wine. Technion gave the white grapes a longer amount of time with the pulp - 18 hours - in the presence of alcohol, before removing their skins.

Technion's polyphenol-charged wine looks and tastes the same as regular white wine but has the same antioxidant activity as red wine. Israeli wine manufacturer Binyamina has now started using the recipe to manufacture the healthier white wine. It is expected to be on sale in the USA by the end of the year.

Professor Michael Aviram, the researcher at Technion's Faculty of Medicine, said:

"There has been an incredible response from those that have heard about the research with many thinking of taking up drinking white wine more seriously!"

"The only downside is that it is sweet like a dessert wine because the added alcohol inhibits the ability of sugar in the grape to convert to alcohol."

Several years ago Binyamina`s oenologist suggested that Professor Aviram check the possibility of extracting the oxidation inhibitors found in the skins of white grapes. He offered to find a way that will allow the juice to remain with the skin to enhance the presence of flavonoids without also absorbing its astringent taste, thus preserving the characteristic flavour of the white wine.
Two different methods of wine production were tested whereby contact with the skins was maintained. One involved Binyamina`s 2000 Chardonnay. Tests were also conducted using Binyamina`s Alexandrian Muscat 2000.

Back in 2002 the University of Montpellier in France announced that the health benefits of red wine may now be found in a Chardonnay. They created a wine called Paradoxe Blanc (named for the French Paradox in which despite a fatty diet the French live long and have relatively low levels of heart disease).

The researchers, led by Pierre-Louis Teissedre, chose white grapes which were rich in polyphenols. They also changed the wine-making process so it was more like that for red wine, including steps such as heating up the mixture to a higher level than normal. The end result was a Chardonnay which had polyphenol levels 4 times higher than normal.

More than 4,000 cases were made at the Domaines Virginie in Languedoc Roussillon (now owned by Castel) using red wine production techniques. The wine is named after the so-called French Paradox, the fact that the French have a remarkably low rate of heart disease despite their rich diet—possibly because of all the red wine they drink. Paradoxe Blanc was released as a 1999 vintage in Europe and Japan, and Domaines Virginie plans to sell it in the United States – however I can find no trace of it being released there yet.

All this is good news for white wine lovers as they will be able to reap the same benefits from white wine as red! So why not order some white wine today – click here!

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Bordeaux Wine, Ancient Egypt and Appellation Controlee

The National Geographic has reported in an article “Christian "Holy Wine" Factory Found in Egypt” that 2 recently discovered wine presses are likely part of the area's earliest winery, producing holy wine for export to Christians abroad. Egyptian archaeologists discovered the 2 presses with large crosses carved across them near St. Catherine's Monastery, a 6th century A.D. complex near Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula.

The discoveries so far include the presses, clay vessels called amphorae, and grape seeds. It will be very interesting to see what varieties those ancient seeds actually are! It is assumed that the Greeks who brought the vines to Bordeaux learnt their wine making craft from the Egyptians and some even think that vitis vinifera originated in Egypt. Plutarch, the 1st century Greek historian, said that he was told that Osiris (the Egyptian god of life, death and fertility) was the first to drink wine and to teach men how to plant the vine.

Several gold coins picturing the Roman Emperor Valens, who ruled from A.D. 364 to 378, were also found near the presses. The structures are similar to presses used by ancient Egyptians, beginning as early as 3,000 B.C., when pharaohs started a royal wine making industry in the fertile Nile Delta. Early Christians likely managed to grow grapevines and palm trees at the winery site because—at more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above sea level—it would have been cooler than the surrounding desert.

It seems that ancient Egypt invented the first Appellation Controlee system. The Egyptians were not the first to make wine, but they were the first to record the process of wine making and celebrate its values. The Ancient Egyptians recorded the harvest of grapes on stone tablets and the walls of their tombs. The Egyptians also had designated areas for growing their vines, much like Bordeaux has today. There were several famous vineyards including the Phoenix Estate on the Horizon of Kemet , the Vineyard Ways of Horus and Preserver of Kemet (a royal estate). The estates on the Western River were highly thought of and this wine was found in cellars on the palace of Amenophis II at Tebes and Armana.

There was a “Royal Sealer of Wine” who overlooked the honest labelling laws, and much of what you find on wine labels today were on the wine labels of ancient Egypt. These included:

Name of the Estate
Location
Type of wine
Date of vintage
Vintners Name
Assessment of Quality

An example of such a wine label is:

Star of Horus on the Height of Heaven
Northern Xois District
Chassut Red
Sekem-Ka, vintner
Very, very fine grade.

Chassut Red was reputed to be not ready to drink until it had aged 100 years! Keeping a wine for years to mature was not all that uncommon. Although we don't label the wine with the name of the vintner today most grand vins in Bordeaux display the name of the vintner (oenophile) on their facts sheets and web sites. Interestingly Bordeaux's more famous oenophiles – such as the flying vintner Michel Rolland – are very similar to their ancient Egyptian counter parts. In Egypt if the vintner was famous for producing fine wines and moved to another vineyard, they could be kept track of by looking at the wine labels to see which wine he was making.

The vineyards themselves have similarities to Bordeaux - many scenes from tombs give a fairly accurate picture of the Egyptian vineyards and the techniques of wine production. The best site to locate a vineyard was on a hill, but if there wasn't one than the Egyptians made an artificially raised plot of land and planted the vines there. Bordeaux's vineyards are often on well drained gravel, south facing hillsides. Egyptian vineyards were generally enclosed by a wall and you will spot several grand vins with the name beginning Clos or L'Enclos in Bordeaux which refers to a walled vineyard.

The earliest record of wine cellars also comes from the Ancient Egyptians - we know from the wall paintings in the tombs of nobles that there were specially constructed storehouses in which the wine amphorae were stacked in rows on shelves - giving us a glimpse of the first true wine cellars.

Maybe Bordeaux and Ancient Egypt have more in common than we think – even their proverbs are the same!

Bordeaux proverb:

“In water one sees one’s own face, but in wine one beholds the heart of another.”

Ancient Egyptian proverb:

“In water you see your own face, but in wine the heart of its garden"

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Bordeaux and The Rose Bush

Wander along most vineyards in Bordeaux and you will find fragrant roses nodding in the breeze at the end of the lines of grape vines. Roses and vines have been grown together for centuries as they have much in common. The rose acts as the sentinel of the vine as they are both susceptible to the same diseases. Vineyard managers plant rose bushes at the end of each vineyard row so that they can detect early symptoms of disease. Roses and grapevines are both susceptible to the fungus powdery mildew. In fact, roses are more sensitive than grapevines. Sulphur won't cure powdery mildew, but it can prevent it. So, if a grape grower noticed that one day his roses had powdery mildew, he knew it was immediately time to spray sulphur on his grapes to prevent them from getting the same disease. Roses also serve as a habitat for some beneficial insects that eat other undesirable insects – such as ladybirds who are particularly fond of aphids!

France has a long and romantic history of Rose growing. Rosa Gallica Officinalis was possibly the first cultivated rose and is the first and the most famous of the Gallica roses. Originally a species rose, it grew wild in central Asia and was first cultivated by the ancient Persians and Egyptians, and later adopted by the Greeks and the Romans. The Romans introduced it in Gaul (later to become France) where it assumed the named Rosa Gallica.

Rosa Gallica Officinalis or The Apothecary’s Rose is also known as the Rose of Provins. Count Thibault IV of Champagne brought a rose with him when he returned from Jerusalem in 1240. Provins still has a culture of rose growing and the rose is part of their cuisine. This ancient rose is recorded as being in cultivation in the 800's (It was used as a medicine and perfume in the court of Charlemagne in the 9th century A.D.) Its petals were noted to retain their fragrance even when dried and powdered and for this reason, it remains the rose of choice for pot pourris. It was also cultivated for its medicinal values.

It is also said that Edmund of Lancaster, brother to the King of England and second husband of Blanche of Artois added the Provins Rose – the red rose of England’s War of the Roses – to his coat of arms.

Fair Rosamund, the mistress of Henry II of England is also linked to the legend of the Rose. Legend has it that Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was so jealous of her that she poisoned her and disguised the potion with Attar of Roses. Henry and Eleanor are famous for starting the English love affair with claret as Eleanor brought her favourite wine from Bordeaux with her. A rose was said to have sprouted near Rosamund’s grave from the tears that she spilt – it was named Rosa Mundi after her.

Rosa centifolia or the Cabbage Rose (named for its hundreds of petals) was born in France in the 16th century and was introduced in Grasse for the production of rose essence. Despite being almost sterile, the Cabbage Rose gave birth to multiple mutations such as the moss rose, covered with green moss on its sepals and stem, or the lettuce-leafed rose, R. x centifolia 'Bullata.'

The creation of roses in France and their dispersion throughout the world achieved such success thanks to the passion of Empress Josephine, who, in her garden of Malmaison, possessed a very important collection of botanical species and horticultural varieties of roses. The "beautiful Indian" (born in the Antilles or West Indies) bought the Chateau de la Malmaison after her marriage to Napoleon . She brought together 250 varieties for her gardens, nearly all the known roses at the time. Thanks to her, France became the country of reference for roses for the duration of the 19th century.

Surprisingly there are few roses named after châteaux or wines - there are 2 famous ones: Rosa Dames de Chenonceau (named after the ladies of Château de Chenonceaux) and Rosa Château de Clos Vougeot. Château de Chenonceau is a spectacular château called the “Château of the Ladies” in French history and was built by Katherine Briçonnet, then added to by Diane of Chennonceau and Catherine de Médicis, and finally saved from destruction during the Revolution by Mme Dupin.

Rosa Dames de Chenonceau has very double, pink flowers with splashes of orange and apricot which are produced in summer. It has a rich, heady scent of oranges and aniseed and is a great shrub for a sunny border with well drained soil.

Chateau Clos de Vougeot is a 12th century chateau in Burgundy and its vineyards were planted by monks first planted vine in Clos de Vougeot in the 12th century. Nowadays, protected by a wall of stones, Clos de Vougeot is one of the largest single vineyards in Burgundy and produces grand cru wines.

Rosa Chateau Clos de Vougeot is a deep red old fashioned climbing hybrid tea rose which is the grand father of many of todays roses. It has a remarkable depth of colour and a damask rose scent.

If anyone knows of other roses named for chateau or wines please let me know!

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