Day 1725 (Sunday) 27th February 2022
Shock horror is was quite cold this morning so Badger and I stayed in bed to keep warm while Huw did some pottering around the flat.
The most expensive wine in the world
I am reading yet another Peter Mayle book, this one is called ‘The Vintage Caper’ and it said that Château d'Yquem is the most expensive wines in the world so I Googled it and found this article which was written in 2017…
In 2011, a bottle of Château d'Yquem 1811, a ridiculously old vintage from one of the world's most celebrated wineries, sold for a white-wine record of $117,000—the equivalent of two Alfa Romeos or a down payment for a half million dollar home.
The buyer, Christian Vanneque, was not a billionaire financier or oil magnate, but a French sommelier in Indonesia. Vanneque said he planned to drink it on the 50th anniversary of his career in wine. Yquems, which are Sauternes, sweet wines from Bordeaux, are known for their exceptional longevity.
This week, Christie’s will put up another Château d’Yquem, this time a 1847 vintage, for auction among a number of other rare wines and spirits. “Unquestionably the greatest ever Sauternes vintage,” the catalogue notes of the bottle. It is estimated at $20,000–$30,000, but where the bidding leads remains to be seen. As someone whose most fraught wine purchase is a glass at a restaurant bar ($17? you’re killing me, New York), the world of wine auctions seemed like a different planetary system altogether. To find out what all the fuss is about, I talked to Aldo Sohm, who has handled more than a few pricey bottles as wine director of New York City’s Le Bernardin and Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, as well as Noah May, the wine specialist at Christie’s.
The 1847 vintage up for auction this week.
Courtesy Of Christie's
“Why do we buy certain cars or a certain watch if a regular watch would do?” asked Sohm, noting that his specialty was not in human psychology or market economics. “You can’t buy this regularly anymore. This wine is older than my grandparents. It’s just impossible.” Meaning you can’t swing by the local wine store to pick up a 170-year-old Château d’Yquem; bottles this old aren’t even available at the vineyard itself anymore. Even a 2013 vintage goes for a few hundred dollars.
For sweet white wines, only Château d’Yquem has a classification of premier cru supérieur—it is quite literally in a league of its own. Part of Château d’Yquem’s excellence is the winemaking knowledge at the vineyard, where wine has been made since the 1500s, and part is its unique microclimate. If quality isn’t up to snuff in a certain year, the château doesn’t release a vintage under its label and sells off the juice. Situated in Gironde in southern Bordeaux, the vineyard is particularly well suited to “noble rot,” so called for a type of fungus called Botrytis cinerea that attacks grapes. The grapes shrivel and produce way less juice, but the droplets from every little botrytis-pruned grape are incredibly concentrated and make for sweet, elegant wines. It is also what makes the wines expensive to begin with, it simply takes exponentially more work and more vines to squeeze out a bottle of wine.
After our French lesson on Friday we are both feeling a bit inspired and our lesson was entitled ‘At the Butcher’s’ ‘A la boucher’. So I did some research and found this…
Food
La nourriture /Les aliments
Food is a necessity and can also be a source of great pleasure. Being able to talk about French food will come in handy while shopping, dining, travelling, and entertaining friends, so check out this vocab list for French food, including the basic food groups and related verbs. Bon appétit !
* In American English, “entrée” means main course, whereas in French une entrée refers to an appetizer / starter.
Les fruits (m) Fruit
Les légumes (m) Vegetables
les produits laitiers Dairy products
La viande Meat
Le dessert Dessert
Et cetera
In France, coffee is served after dessert, not with it.
After watching the news Huw went through our photo albums from when we went to Ukraine ten years ago. He found this photo of himself standing in front of the monument to the unification of Russia and Ukraine – oh, the irony.
Comments
Post a Comment