Impress your guests with
choice delicacies
and sophisticated creations.
Exclusive appetisers
Available in
SIGNER AG
Fabrikstrasse 1
CH-8586 Ennetaach-Erlen (TG)
Tel. +41 (0)71 649 11 11
Fax +41 (0)71 649 11 22
www.signerag.ch
SIGNER AG
Metallverarbeitung
von A–Z
Für Sammler und Geniesser, die ihre wertvollen
Bordeaux-Weine gerne in den Originalkisten lagern:
Das universelle
Bordeaux-Kisten- und
Weinflaschen-Gestell
8 Bordeaux-Kisten
übereinander stapelbar
Einblick und Zugriff in
jede einzelne Kiste
Spezialtablare für
Einzelflaschen
stabiles korrosionsge-
schütztes Stahlgestell
einfachste Montage
und Demontage
modularer und kom-
pakter Aufbau für opti-
male Platzausnützung
beliebig kombinier- und
erweiterbar (Platzbedarf
pro Erweiterungssatz:
381 mm)
u
nübertroffen preis-
günstig: Basisgestell
CHF 790.– inkl. MWST
(3 Gestelleinheiten für
total 24 Kisten; H x B x T
1846 x 1178 x 440 mm)
A
uch als praktisches
Tischgestell erhältlich.
Besuchen Sie unsere
Website oder verlangen
Sie unsere Unterlagen.
Spezialkonditionen ab 5 (wie Bild)
bzw. 10 Gestelleinheiten.
51
Oenologists History
neoclassical stucco villa with a liveried English servant in white gloves shak-
ily pouring an ancient Margaux into a decanter in candlelight to the sounds of
chamber music from a Russian string quartet flown in for the occasion, has been
sadly deceived. Bordeaux is not classic and aristocratic, Bordeaux is luxury, and
thanks to its increasingly broad range has remained astonishingly affordable.
Bordeaux is fashion and fun, Bordeaux is something for modern people, Bor-
deaux is young and urban, and if Bordeaux were music it would not be merely
Mozart echoing from the loudspeakers, but also techno, lounge and dub. There
is just one facet of Bordeaux which does not fit our fast-paced era: Bordeaux
needs time and leisure.
52
History Overview
56 BC Crassus conquers the Bituriges: Burdigala (Bordeaux) becomes Roman.
According to the historian Strabo there is virtually no home-grown wine, with
the drink instead being imported from Iberia and southern Italy.
71 BC Pliny visits Bordeaux – the city is entirely surrounded by vines.
400 AD The teacher and rhetorician Ausonius describes Bordeaux as ‘charac-
terised by rivers and vines'.
1154 Bordeaux comes under English rule. Wine becomes the city's most impor-
tant export product and ensures the wealth of its inhabitants.
1214 The inhabitants of Bordeaux persuade King John of England to abolish all
export taxes on wine. The ports of Bordeaux become the world's most impor-
tant wine ports at this time.
1241 Henri III Plantagenet extends the privileges of Bordeaux citizens. Wines
from other regions can only enter the city after 25 December, and thus cannot
be shipped. This privilege continues (with a few interruptions) under suc-
cessive French kings until being finally abolished in 1776 by Turgot, the first
French liberal.
1303 Bordeaux exports 102,724 tonneaux (one tonneau = four barriques = 900
litres = 1,200 modern bottles) of wine, or 924,518 hl, around the equivalent of
Switzerland's entire current annual production or around 120 million bottles!
1550 Jean de Pontac builds a ‘Maison Noble' amid his vines to the south of the
city of Bordeaux, which becomes a centre and symbol of winemaking, and
thus invents the wine chateau.
1660 François-Auguste de Pontac opens a tavern in London. It serves a wine
called Ho Bryan, which unlike the light red ‘clarets' is dark in colour and has
a ‘most particular taste', as Samuel Pepys wrote three years previously in his
famous diary. New French Claret is now in fashion.