Uncover the unimaginable historical past behind one in every of Bordeaux’s most storied wine estates.
Château Magnol options all the weather of the traditional French Château: Winding corridors result in elegantly appointed chambers. Museum-worthy work. Vases brim with aromatic blooms plucked from the backyard. Within the kitchen, a chef chops herbs plucked from beds simply exterior the window. An extended eating room desk set with silver and the best china invitations lengthy, drawn-out meals and dialog. A roaring fire creates the proper, cozy ambiance for dessert cordials. An unlimited cellar is stocked with bottles ready anxiously to be uncorked.
Adorned with wisteria and trellised crimson roses and surrounded by countless vineyards, the 18th-century property, house of Barton & Guestier, the oldest wine home nonetheless in operation in Bordeaux, exudes class.
The Barton & Guestier story begins over 300 years in the past, in 1722, when Irishman Thomas Barton (1695–1780) left his house in Curraghmore, County Fermanagh, and settled in Bordeaux, decided to discovered a wine property of his very personal. By 1725, he was sending barrels and bottles of the best Bordeaux wines by way of the excessive seas to his wine-loving prospects in Northern Europe, having earned the nickname “French Tom” because the port metropolis’s go-to service provider.
The enterprise remained within the Barton household till French Tom’s grandson, Hugo Barton, teamed up with Frenchman Daniel Guestier within the late 1700s.
Collectively, Barton and Guestier sourced wines from the perfect vineyards in Bordeaux, aged them of their cellars, after which loaded them onto ships that sailed off alongside the Garonne River and throughout the ocean.
Thomas Jefferson beloved Bordeaux wine!
Forward of his occasions, ever-entrepreneurial Guestier opened a commerce workplace in Baltimore, Maryland. And none aside from U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who as soon as declared, “Good wine is a necessity of life for me,” was among the many duo’s first purchasers.
Jefferson had joined John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in Paris in 1784, the place he finally succeeded Franklin as Minister to France (1785-1789) earlier than changing into Secretary of State. Like most early People, earlier than his stint in France, he indulged in candy, heavy wines from the Iberian peninsula. His tastes modified after he toured Bordeaux and indulged in France’s best vintages. “The style of this nation was artificially created by our lengthy restraint beneath the English authorities to the robust wines of Portugal and Spain,” he later remarked on America’s penchant for Madeira and port.
Upon his return to Virginia in 1795, he positioned an order for 250 bottles of Bordeaux, 120 bottles of Sauternes, 60 bottles of Frontignan, and 60 bottles of white Hermitage. The cellar of his Monticello house brimmed with the best of Bordeaux wines.
Throughout his presidency, Jefferson was a wine connoisseur par excellence, internet hosting three wine-fueled dinner events within the White Home every week. He was additionally the primary president to equip the White Home with an ample wine cellar. Of his $25,000 annual wage, he spent $3,200 on wine alone throughout his first yr in workplace.
Although he was nicely into his retirement in 1818, Jefferson was alarmed and took instant motion when some members of the federal authorities prompt the next tariff on wine imports, noting in a letter to Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford, “I believe it a terrific error to contemplate a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxurious. Quite the opposite, it’s a tax on the well being of our residents. It’s a legislative path that none however the richest of them shall be permitted to drink wine….”
Constructed in the beginning of the 1700’s, the château Magnol in Blanquefort, only a few kilometers from the guts of Bordeaux metropolis, was impressed by an historic Gallo-Roman villa. Located within the Haut-Médoc appellation, it’s surrounded by 30 hectares of Haute Valeur Environnementale vineyards. (HVE is a French agricultural certification that acknowledges a dedication to defending and enriching the surroundings by way of accountable, conservation-minded practices). Its magnificent underground cellar homes a unprecedented assortment of just about 20,000 bottles.
The underground cellar, nonetheless, conceals a darkish historical past.
In the course of the Second World Battle, when German troops reached Bordeaux on June 28, 1940, they took over the Château and made it the headquarters of their naval operations (an occupation that may final till August 1944). The wine cellar served as their bunker.
In 1942, Winston Churchill launched Operation Frankton, described by British Admiral Louis Mountbatten as a “sensible little operation carried by way of with nice determinism and braveness…”. On December 7, 13 Royal Marines deliberate to paddle practically 70 miles up the Gironde Estuary in 6 collapsible canvas kayaks to the port of Bordeaux. Simply two kayaks made all of it the way in which, the place they connected mines to Japan-bound German ships loaded with arms.
Solely two of the troopers survived. One courageous Royal Marine was executed on the Château. A small memorial adjoining to the bunker stands in his honor, and an annual ceremony celebrates his valiant efforts. The story of Operation Frankton featured within the 1955 movie The Cockleshell Heroes.
Right this moment, sommeliers from around the globe go to Château Magnol’s B&G Meals & Wine Academy to study concerning the French AOC system and wine tasting methods beneath the supervision of Grasp Sommelier Omar Barbosa.
Amy Bizzarri is a Chicago-based freelance author centered on meals and journey. She’s the writer of 4 Chicago history-focused books, and Iconic Hollywood Dishes, Desserts and Drinks (American Palate) a dive into Hollywood meals historical past. Plus she’s a WSET-trained sommelier.
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