Grands Crus de Bordeaux

Last Friday afternoon I got to attend a special event. It only comes round once a year - the Grand Crus de Bordeaux tasting - time for the new 2007 vintage. I admit I made a bee line to the back wall to my favorite, the Sauternes - they have a tendency to run out quickly from past experience. First look at the wine's color in the glass before tasting - it should be a golden yellow that will become progressively darker as it ages. Then the all important "nosing" of the wine to enhale it's aromas - dried pineapple, apricot, caramel, vanilla, honey, peach - miam Then the sip and swill it around inside your mouth so it hits all areas... Ah...very important. Take down thoughtful notes in the little book provided. Then you spit into the sipttoons, so you can go on tasting unfettered, but I have a hard time spitting Sauternes... After each taste/ slug of wine you rinse your glass with water and cleanse your palete with a plain cracker and a bite of fromage. This taster is well armed.

You are given one glass to taste all the wines as you enter - always an Austrian Riedel glass, only the best at the Bordeaux tastings.

The Marriott ballroom was jammed packed with serious trade wine tasters dashing about to get their slug of Bordeaux best wines served up by the chateau owners - a rare treat.

After 2 hours all that's left are the empties. I was ready to say,

au revoir till next year's Grand Crus tasting.

Which brings me to a book I'm waiting for, by cutting edge winewriter Michael Steinberger, Au Revoir To All That. Have you heard? Steinberger thinks French food has gone downhill in the past 25 years. French cuisine is in a rut, ruined by the invasion of le fast food (France is McDo's second biggest market), stringently high VAT charges, strict labor laws, the stifling dominance of the Michelin guides etc.

"The result is a sharp and funny book that will give Francophiles everywhere an entirely new perspective—political, economic, personal, and cultural—on the crisis in the country and food they love."
You can catch Michael Steinberger's wine columns at Slate.

Or hear him at NPR.

I passed Chateau Beaumont's table at the tasting, and remembered my stay at there toute seule for a few very hot July days while on a painting jaunt. 

I wasn't really alone - thousands of Bordelaise buzzing bugs kept me company at night - no AC or screens in a medieval turret. I was happy to bid au revoir Ch. Beaumont a few days early.

I spent last weekend recovering from too many sips of Sauternes.

BONJOUR BORDEAUX!

My Bordeaux 2

I had to find a way to sink my teeth into Bordeaux's Neoclassical architecture, or rather my ✏️ ..so I could meet the Bordeaux challenge and paint these for Sherry-Lehmann's catalog. I'd take the "grape picker's" bus up la Route du Médoc, stopping at all the vineyards to Margaux. I got out and sat by the side of the road on a folding stool, gazing up at these monster chateaux. The road is lined with chateaux on both sides. Daunting doesn't begin to describe the challenge I'd set for myself.Downing glasses of red and the occasional Sauternes, hoping and praying was not going to help. I decided to go the figurative route. If I could conquer the details of these elaborate structures, the cornices, the sculpted reliefs, etc., then I could stick these details onto a basic geometric form and back into painting them. I plunged into drawing all the bits. Another route I thought would help was to learn how to pen the Copperplate or English Round Hand calligraphy on many Bordeaux wine labels. The French call it "Anglaise." I thought taking a calligraphy class making those fluid curvilinear marks would help to get the feeling of the architecture. That's Bordeaux's famous Pont De Pierre in the sketch, that crosses the river Garonne and was commissioned by Napoleon. It's one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Sketches of cornices and relief details. Chateau Margaux is a perfect example of Neoclassical archtecture built by Victor Louis between 1773-1780, as was Le Grand Theâtre, Bordeaux's opera house.Sometimes I draw in books...I stayed in an 18th century Château - everyone's dream. Wrong. I was toute seule, alone with a billion Bourdeaux bugs in the extreme heat of August. They had me for dinner. Petit Déjeuner was served in the morning, sent up from the gate house. Otherwise I was alone with medieval turrets & bugs 🐜 No TV, no radio, no distraction. Too creepy for me. I fled to a center city hotel after 2 nights. If you want a closer look at chateaux, visit Berry Bros website, London's fine wine shop. Click on the name of the chateau on the map that you'd like to visit and take the tour. You'll get to see some of these daunting structures I was painting. You'll also see how flat as a pancake 🥞 the landscape can be - not lots of foliage to hide one's lack of expertise with architectural drawing. More to come.