The History Of Bordeaux

Martin, hi, it's so nice to see you again. So you're a fine wine expert and one of the founding members at Élysée Thé. I'm really excited to be with you in London and actually ask you some really precise questions around Bordeaux. How could you summarise the history of winemaking in Bordeaux? So the history in Bordeaux I would say starts with 50-60 BC. This is when the Romans arrived in the Bordeaux region, mainly in the Centimillion area. And they started to dug chalk in order to build houses, basically. And this is, we could say, the beginning of winemaking in the Bordeaux region. Fast forward 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II, the future king of England. And this love story is basically the beginning of the relationship between Bordeaux and England. After this marriage, a very close link, obviously, between Bordeaux and England. And for 300 years, Bordeaux was the main export market in England. And they had a lot of influence of winemaking, etc. The next date I would say we need to mention is in about 1600. This is when the Dutch, the main market at the time, basically arrived in Bordeaux and drained the left back of Bordeaux, which is now the Medoc region, to create more space to plant the vineyards. And that's a big change because now there used to be big dams. At the moment, it's one of the finest vineyards in all Bordeaux, like Apuia, Sint-Esteve, Saint-Julien. After that, I think it's an interesting fact to mention, 1660s. This is when Chateau Haut-Briand first bottled single estate wine. So that's an interesting fact to know. The next is 1855 classification. Very famous classification, which was basically ordered by Napoleon III for exhibition in Paris where the left bank wines needed to be classified. Because it was confusing at the time, you know, a lot of different wines made and who is the best. And the next I think we need to mention is 1869, the phylloxera, the disaster. Basically, which swept whole vineyards in Europe, including Bordeaux. From 1869 to about 1880s, about 60% of all vineyards was wiped out. And phylloxera, sorry, it was an illness? Yeah, so it's basically a disease, a tiny, tiny bug, which affects a wine and kills it. Okay, Martin. Well, thank you so much for your time and all your masterful insights.