-
A sleight of hand
Although not a scandal as such, the 18th and 19th centuries were full of practices guaranteed to earn a strong rebuke if carried out in this day and age.
Perhaps the most well known practice was the blending of Bordeaux with stronger wines from Spain, the Rhône or the Languedoc to improve the strength and colour of the wines, particularly if bound for the UK.
Not that this blending was completely disallowed but it was only meant to be to a certain point. How often that point was crossed without anyone knowing is another matter.
Throughout several centuries it was common practice for winemakers to blend in wines from “the high country”, with those from Hermitage in the Rhône particularly prized.
Ironically it was the addition of wines from outside the region that spurred on Bordeaux’s popularity and the style of wine emanating from the wineries was very much at odds with the style that had initially made it popular abroad.
It was the lighter wines from the Gironde that initially found favour with the English, when that area of France was part of the domain of the King of England in the Middle Ages.
The name “claret” was an English bastardisation of the French “clairet”, which referred to what was in effect a very dark rosé now largely disappeared from production.
The ravages of phylloxera from 1869 worsened the adulteration and it became such a cause for concern that in 1901 the Syndicat des Grands Crus Classés du Médoc was founded, it’s chief goal being to crack down on such practices.
However, even as late as 1905 there were reports that whole barrels of dark and heady wine from North Africa and the Midi were being shipped out to the UK or elsewhere, proudly bearing the names of their respective châteaux and purporting to be pure Bordeaux.
Burgundy was just as culpable and remained so until after the Second World War in some sources.
The predilection there, as in Bordeaux, was for mixing in some of the robust North African reds from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia to bulk out colour, concentration and alcohol.
We should of course be grateful that the Bordelais no longer produce wine designed to solely satisfy influential customers.