Issue Nine

    When the Marquis de Lafayette decided to leave France for all the exalted uncertainty of the New World, he purchased a ship and let it set sail from Pauillac.  Leaving the lush and bustling port town, Lafayette sailed through the Gironde Estuary, around the tip of Bordeaux’s triangular Medoc region, and into the vast and fitful Atlantic.  In America, he fought under George Washington and lead Revolutionary forces to several victories.  As was written in legislation that 200 years later made him the sixth honorary U.S. citizen, Lafayette will be forever remembered as a symbol of America’s freedom.
    But had Lafayette been as ardent for wine as he was for liberty, the revolutionary may have never  set foot in the New World.  As Lafayette sailed around Medoc, he sailed away from a vineyard wonderland.  On the Medoc’s eastern side, a cluster of vineyards forms a narrow strip only three to six miles wide and about 45 miles long.  The best land is perched along gentle slopes falling toward the estuary, not more than 150 feet above sea level.  In small marshy sections, scattered streamlets called jalles send water slipping down into the broad Gironde.  Within this nexus of perfect soil and perfect climate, several communes vie to produce the world’s most palette pleasing reds.  Of these communes, St Estephe, St Julien, Margaux, Pauillac, Listrac and Moulis, Pauillac is considered the greatest.
    It’s the greatest in terms of the sheer volume of wine produced and Pauillac is greatest, too in terms of wine quality.  In 1855, Napoleon III held the Exposition Universelle de Paris to showcase to the world the very best France had to offer.  As wine was certainly on the list, the Bordeaux Wine Brokers’ Union devised a five-class ranking system according to which the Medoc reds could be graded and with which to accompany their display.  Since then, the wine world has adhered to the union’s classification (its only significant change was by decree on June 21, 1973 when Château Mouton-Rothschild was promoted from deuxieme cru to premeir cru and the classification was reorganized to list all premeir crus in alphabetical order) and, since then, three of the four first-growths, Lafite, Latour and Mouton, have been from Pauillac.  The commune also boasts 18 Crus Classes, about one-third of the wines listed in the 1855 classification.
    Robert Parker, whose word moves the wine world in much the same way as Alan Greenspan’s moves the economy, has awarded perfect 100-point scores (his own unique classification) to just 127 wines.  It amounts to, he says, only “one-tenth of 1 percent of the wines I’ve tasted.”  Among the superb standouts are Pauillac’s 1996 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, 1986 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and 1982 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.
    According to Del Mar Times and Winescene.com expert Andy Abramson, the superior growths of Pauillac come only from distinct climates with specific soil.  To French people and oenophiles, he explains, these conditions fall under one term: la terroir, and in Pauillac, it’s just about perfect, especially for Cabernet Sauvignon.  The soil in Pauillac lies in a bed of three levels.  Heavy with gravel, the top layer covers a stretch of stony sub-soil, beneath which hides the key to wine quality–a layer of iron rich soil with excellent drainage.  The fusion of soil components, climate and growing conditions produces Medoc’s greatest–Pauillac’s dense, meaty, powerful reds.  They may start out tannic or austere but are long lived and mellow with maturity to become exceedingly complex, delicate wines.
    Pauillac’s fame lies largely in its great growths from Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Latour, which stand as sentinels at either end of the commune.  Latour at the southern end adjoining St Julien; Lafite to the north, looking across a marshy brook to Cos d’Estournel and the neighboring hilltop of St Estephe.  These growths produce wines more powerful than other Medoc’s, with slightly more body and firmness than even the bigger St. Juliens.  But these long-lived wines endure the years and continually please the palettes of even the most discriminating connoisseurs because of one most coveted and regal quality–unsurpassed individuality.