deaux wines every year, with a degree of
shame as wine is not designed to be spat
out. Bordeaux has changed radically over these past 30 years. There is no other
region producing such quantities of such stylish wines. Bordeaux has an unfor-
tunate reputation for producing rare luxury products, but in reality the peak has
become much broader, and even so-called lesser vintages offer wines which are
outstanding in terms of both price and style. There are hundreds of good Bor-
deaux wines, only a few of which are expensive objects of speculation. On my
first en primeur tour, there were barely a dozen tasters trying 120 wines. Today,
several thousand Bordeaux palates (or aspiring palates) taste up to a thousand
wine samples over the course of a week without any guilty conscience what-
soever. There is also a downside to the sheer quantity of interesting Bordeaux.
Whilst people who knew a couple of dozen labels and three top vintages could
once call themselves connoisseurs, now it takes a university degree. This book is
an (insu
ffi
cient) attempt to turn the tide. I have tried – with all the compromises
and inconsistencies such an undertaking entails – to reduce the top Bordeaux
wines everyone should know to 200 brands. This is the best overview I can of-
fer of my world of fine Bordeaux, whilst also including a few other lesser-known
estates as representatives of the many others. All of this is based on my own
experience: I make no claim to objectivity when it comes to wine.
I originally wanted to reduce the historical notes about the estates to a couple
of lines which could be read anywhere. When compiling the first portraits, I was
tearing my hair out wondering whether I was repeating the error of cheerfully
repeating all of the commonly held misconceptions ever published, but my
Bernese stubbornness required a di
ff
erent approach. Checking sources and his-
torical data, studying marriage certificates and trawling through online archives
cost me an extra year of work. However, the subject matter was worth the effort:
true Bordeaux history contains ten times more adventure than what is usually
peddled.
Rolf Bichsel
Bordeaux lives
8
Contents
200 years of wine adventure
9
Geography