Drink Less, Drink Better

In the decade of the 1990s, total French consumption of wine dropped just 2 percent, but the decline in the lower-quality wines that are drunk daily was much more severe, falling 19 percent. The number of French people drinking wine daily or almost daily fell from 46.9 percent in 1980 to 23.5 percent in 2000. And people in their early sixties are four times more likely to drink wine daily than those in their early thirties. Some wine officials try to find solace in the fact that on average the French are drinking better wines. Boire Moins, Boire Mieux (Drink Less, Drink Better) has become the mantra of French optimists who hope that the business can make up in quality what it is losing in quantity. The higher-quality wines governed by the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system accounted for only 14 percent of domestic sales in 1950 but are nearly 50 percent today.

G. M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (2005), 281

Only to Spain and Portugal to check out the fortified wines

The world’s view of wine at that time can be seen in the itinerary of the seven-month tour Steven Spurrier made in 1965 on behalf of Christopher’s, his employer and London’s oldest wine merchant. Spurrier spent three months in Bordeaux, two months in Burgundy, one week in the Rhône Valley, three weeks in Germany, and one week each in Champagne, the Loire Valley, and Alsace. Then after a summer break, he went to watch the harvests in Jerez, Spain, for Sherry and Oporto, Portugal, for Port. Interestingly, he did not go to Italy at all, and only to Spain and Portugal to check out the fortified wines.

G. M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (2005), 27

Tradition is an experiment that has worked

They determined over time, for example, that Cabernet Sauvignon grapes did best in Bordeaux and Pinot Noir grapes performed well in Burgundy, so no one had to waste time trying to grow Pinot Noir in Bordeaux or Cabernet Sauvignon in Burgundy. The lessons of history had already been learned. As Émile Peynaud, a University of Bordeaux professor and the leading French wine guru of the twentieth century, said, “Tradition is an experiment that has worked.”

G. M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (2005), 18

Wherever men are found, strong liquors are met with, and are used in festivities

Wine, the most pleasant of all drinks, whether due to Noah who planted the vine, or to Bacchus who expressed the juice of the grape, dates back to the infancy of the world. Beer, which is attributed to Osiris, dates to an age far beyond history. All men, even those we call savages, have been so tormented by the passion for strong drinks, that limited as their capacities were, they were yet able to manufacture them. They made the milk of their domestic animals sour: they extracted the juice of many animals and many fruits in which they suspected the idea of fermentation to exist. Wherever men are found, strong liquors are met with, and are used in festivities, sacrifices, marriages, funeral rites, and on all solemn occasions. 

J. Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste (1825), 80

A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye

I'm doing all of Brillat-Savarin's aphorisms together:

• A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye. (p.22)
• Gastronomy rules all life, for the tears of the infant cry for the bosom of the nurse; the dying man receives with some degree of pleasure the last cooling drink, which, alas! he is unable to digest. (36)
• Which one of us, condemned to the fare of the fathers of the desert, would not have smiled at the idea of a well-carved chicken's wing, announcing his rapid rendition to civilized life? (49)
• Give the most hungry man you can meet with the richest possible food, he will eat with difficulty. Give him a glass of wine or of brandy, and at once he will find himself better. (79)
• I observe with pride, that gourmandise and coquettery, the two great modifications which society has effected in our imperious wants, are both of French origin. (87)
• Thousands of men, who, forty years ago would have passed their evenings in cabarets, now pass them at the theatres. Economy, certainly does not gain by this, but morality does. (138)
• Monsieur, said an old marquise to me one day, which do you like best, Burgundy or Bordeaux? Madame, said I, I have such a passion for examining into the matter, that I always postpone the decision a week. (166)
• Take a raisin-- No I thank you; I do not like wine in pills.(167)

J. Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste (1825)

He fears him more than the Russians

‘Loulou Carillon’s father is afraid Mitterand will take away all his vineyards – he fears him more than the Russians. In the first round, eight-three people in Puligny voted for Le Pen. It’s very difficult to try to imagine who they were. Most of them have never seen an immigrant in their lives’

Bookbinder of Puligny, cited in S. Loftus, Puligny-Montrachet (1992. New ed. 2019), 140

Which is more important to you, your family or Torres?

Despite the almost absurd paternalism, there is a familiarity about the relationship between Sr Torres and his staff which partly validates his claim that the staff are treated like family. ‘If one of them is ill, I pay for him to go to the best doctors in Barcelona,’ St Torres told me. I heard other stories: ‘I do not like that red jersey,’ one employee was told, ‘it is a foolish colour for a man your age.’ It may have been pure coincidence that the autonomous election campaign had just begun, with the Socialists threatening to win the local seat. Another employee was given a gruelling schedule of overseas visits, which mean he would be away for Christmas. ‘My wife is expecting our first baby at that time,’ he complained. He received the following poser in response: ‘Sr X, which is more important to you, your family or Torres?’

H. Eyres, Wine dynasties of Europe (1990), 166

Shi'ites always cut a deal. It was the Sunni fanatics who were the darkest version of the future

I went to Chateau Massaya and had lunch with the winemaker Ramzi Ghosn. He insisted that Hezbollah were not a problem. Their people made substantial earnings as vineyards workers and in the light of this reality the clerics would turn a blind eye. Shi'ites always cut a deal. It was the Sunni fanatics who were the darkest version of the future.

'The boys with the beards up in the hills, they are the ones who make me sleepless at night. They are the madmen. The Shi'a are something else.'

'Not true fanatics?' 

'Not about these things.'

L. Osborne, The wet and the dry (2013), 33 

For others the problem is the weather - for us it is war

He [Michael Rayment] went and looked at the ancient vineyards Gaston Hochar had revived in 1932 when he sent his son Serge to be trained in Bordeaux as a wine maker. He remarked later: 'You cannot have a vintage every year: for others the problem is the weather - for us it is war.'

J. Arlott, 'Battlefield vintage [March 1984]', ed. D.R. Allen, Arlott on wine (1986), 187

If you are an Alsatian winemaker you change your nationality and lose your market every 25 years

Halfway up the picturesque cobbled main street of Riquewihr are the shop, offices, and cellar of the family Hugel who have made and sold wine there for twelve generations, since 1636. In their main cellar they have the oldest wine cask still in use in world; made of oak in 1719 and elaborately carved, it contains 8800 litres - a thousand dozen bottles - and was acquired by one of the family after the French Revolution. They are realists - 'if you are an Alsatian winemaker you change your nationality and lose your market every 25 years' - as well as idealists about their wine. 

J. Arlott, 'Wines of Alsace [April 1973]', ed. D.R. Allen, Arlott on wine (1986), 137 

The custom of drinking a little glass of rich wine with a sweet dish or fruit seems to me a civilized one

The custom of drinking a little glass of rich wine with a sweet dish or fruit seems to me a civilized one, and especially welcome to those who do not or cannot swig brandy or port after a meal. The great dessert wines of Bordeaux and the Rhine are rather beyond the reach or ordinary mortals and are in any case wines that demand a certain ceremony. Your meal has to work up to them. The wine of Beaumes, although so rare, seems somehow more within the scope of the simplest or even of an improvised meal.

E. David, 'Golden Delicious [The Spectator, 10 January 1964]' An omelette and a glass of wine (1984), 84

It took a French priest in the provinces to send the Emperor of China some wine

Through Lang, on the second day of the third month of 1709, Pere d'Entrecolles sent the Kangxi Emperor sixty-six bottles of wine 'and other imported Western rarities'. The Emperor was very pleased and told Lang that in future all offerings should be recorded in detail. This was noted in hs vermillion endorsements.

The Emperor got a lot of presents, delicate  scientific instruments and grand artefacts, inlaid and gilded and resplendent. It took a French priest in the provinces to send the Emperor of China some wine.

E. de Waal, The white road (2015), 103-4

The greatest volume of any single product traded internationally in western Europe during the medieval period.

In the period 1305-36, when the city [Bordeaux] was prosperous under English occupation, it is estimated that wine exports from Gascony to England and Flanders reached 750,000 hectolitres a year. This represents the greatest volume of any single product traded internationally in western Europe during the medieval period.

B. Cunliffe, Facing the Ocean (2001), 51

It is my stern belief that sweet wines of high quality ... are best enjoyed on their own

Although there are a few combinations of food and sweet wine that complement each other - like foie gras and Sauternes - it is my stern belief that sweet wines of high quality (and there is no point drinking any other kind) are best enjoyed on their own. While it is certainly true that strong swaggering sweet wines, such as Anghelu Ruju or Amarone, will not be overpowered by even the richest desserts, I see little point in struggling to accommodate two elements that are best enjoyed separately.

S. Brook, Liquid Gold: dessert wines of the world (1987), 282