Médoc

It's, uh, it's, um, it's challenging, but it's challenging for everybody.

Um, we, w- you know, the Médoc area is between the river on one side and the ocean-

Mm-hmm

... on the other side, so the, the weather could be very humid, so...

After beginning with soup Crécy-style, dinner can truly take off with vol-au-vent chicken.

To accompany the first course, the wine waiter will propose a vintage 1841 Medoc to celebrate Felix's birthday, who today is at an age to become engaged.

All wines are now drunk neat.

Water is served in another glass.

And Clos Dusa, again, great estate down in Graves.

And Clos Manou, always one of my favorites up in the Medoc.

And Potensac, those, like, so yeah, here are several, but I'll give you a couple.

And then at two grapes, he went up to Le Puy, Clos de Garange, Roque de Combe, Leoville Poyferre, Clos de Clachet, and Beauséjour, um, uh, Josephine Dufour-Lagarrosse.

I'm not sure how this is going to help people.

I can understand assessing vintages, and I don't find it helpful because what, you're buying a bottle of wine from a certain vintage.

And as, as you know, Jane, that in one vintage, let's take 2003, Northern Medoc, in a very hot vintage, its wines have lasted and are giving great delight.

Whereas maybe in other parts of Bordeaux, they're not.

On the left bank, west of the water, you get gravelly soils.

Cabernet Sauvignon is king, and that's the world of the 1855 classification, Margaux, Pauillac, and the great Médoc château.

That's the region everyone pictures when they think Bordeaux.

Saint-Emilion is the other Bordeaux.

It sits on the right bank, east of the river, in an area called Libourne.

And almost everything about it is the opposite of Médoc.

The soil there isn't gravel, it's limestone and clay.

The king grape isn't Cabernet Sauvignon, but it's Merlot, and the estates aren't grand sprawling château owned by corporations.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, producing a beautiful Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, or, uh, on the, on the terroir of Fronsac, of Médoc, of Saint-Émilion, of course, at good price, fair price.

It's still the case nowadays.

We still have amazing-

... value.

Um, I don't have the, the real price in mind in the US, but in Bordeaux, when you, when you go to a cellar, below 20 euro, you will find amazing wines, amazing value, and sometimes it's even more interesting.

Wines which are age, you can purchase, like, some '05 vintage, '04, '02 vintage from a simple winery on the plateau of Saint-Émilion or in the Médoc side, which is still very nice to drink, to appreciate nowadays.

Below 20 euro.

"And indeed I had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily, but you should use all proper precaution.

A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps." Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I drew from a long row of its fellows that lay upon the mould.

"Drink," I said, pressing him the wine.

He raised it to his lips with a leer.

"These vaults," he said, "are extensive." "The Montresors," I replied, "were a great and numerous family." "I forget your arms." "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel." "And the motto?" "Nemo me impune lacessit." "Good!" he said.

The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled.

My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc.

We had passed through the walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of catacombs.