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Introduction

200 years of

wine adventure

Bordeaux is one of the oldest winemaking regions in the world.

However, what we know as ‘grand vin' (‘great wine') first emer-

ged during the 17th and 18th centuries. This development invol-

ved immigrants from a variety of countries – Bordeaux wine is a

universal product to the core.

The Bordeaux story

Success did not come about by accident, and great wines are born of great

terroirs: ‘mother vine' (as the cliché has it) is happiest growing in sand, gravel

and clay, sinking her roots deep into the womb of grandmother earth and bus-

ily siphoning mineral crystals, vitamins and aromas into her grapes that grow

and thrive before becoming Lafite Rothschild. Ten little Romans are said to

have discovered the excellent terroirs of the Gironde, laid down their spears and

cultivated the ancient Cabernet Sauvignon. Dionysus served as their wine con-

sultant and was outwitted by Bacchus who introduced barrel aging, and if they

had not died laughing they would still be blithely fertilising wine history with

absurd rubbish. If terroir were reduced to such ridiculous tales, then two thirds

of Bordeaux would onlybe only be good for growing radishes.

The truth is much more prosaic. As the Gauls – or more precisely, the Gallo-

Romans – liked to put a few drinks away (their only other pleasures were bread

and games) and wine was too expensive to import, they began planting their

own vines in around the second half of the first century. To do so, they first