Red Obsession

For centuries,

Bordeaux has commanded an almost mythical status

in the world of wine -

beguiling kings,

emperors and dictators alike.

While its survival is dependent

on the capricious nature of weather,

its prosperity has always been tied

to the shifting fortunes of global economies.

As powerful nations rise and fall,

so does the fate of this place.

I love the history of this place.

I love the fact that it's been here

for hundreds and hundreds of years

and it's endlessly changed with the buffeting of history

and the buffeting of politics

and the buffetings of taste.

There's a wonderful story, too,

about Samuel Pepys drinking Haut-Brion

in London in a tavern.

That's 350 years ago he drank that, and he said,

"It's a wine of a most particular taste," he said,

"of which I know not."

What exactly makes it so magical

is obviously very difficult to explain,

just because... it's magical.

The first vines were planted here by the Romans

over 2,000 years ago.

The generations who have worked this land since

are the custodians of a reputation built over centuries.

Great wines - ha! -

they are as rare as great paintings

or as great pieces of music.

To make a great wine,

it's not only a great terroir, a great château,

it's a great vintage.

But then it's the human factor, you know.

You need love.

You need to bring so much love to your vines, to your vineyard.

When I see on a cluster of 200 or 300 berries,

one which is slightly green,

I take it like that, you know.

And I know it's not significant, apparently,

because one berry out of 250 is nothing,

especially when you think of

those thousand... millions of berries in the vineyard.

But it's the love you bring through that gesture, you see?

That's very important.

I enjoy the wine so much.

I'm a drinker first, more than a taster.

I drink so much,

that for me it's really the pleasure of drinking.

I'm not a great taster, I'm a great drinker.

I could qualify for that, I think.

Maybe you see, because we are after lunch,

and it's true that I drunk more than a bottle for lunch myself.

You know, I had guests and we were seven people.

We had three magnums, so that's OK.

When you taste the fruit,

especially from a block that you know,

you ask it, "I know you, little vineyard.

"I know what is your soul.

"I know who are you as a character.

"But what do you have to tell me this year?"

We've been producing wine here for 400 years,

so it's very important

to understand the history of such a place,

to understand the identity.

So many people ran the property before me

that you really feel it every day.

It's not just a question of 'terroir',

as we say in French,

it's a question of... a piece of history,

a soul, a style, a DNA.

Protected from severe Atlantic winds

and warmed by the effects of the Gironde estuary,

these great estates are endowed by nature with characteristics

that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

When I came here

and they told me these are the best pieces of land,

I thought, "Sure." You know, I mean, "Pebbles."

But it's true - it's perfection.

Thanks to the former generations,

they have actually managed

to pick the best plots of land in the world -

those little plots where the drainage is done naturally,

where nothing grows but the vines

with the big pebbles to keep the heat at night

and to reflect the sun in the daytime.

It's a combination but it took them centuries

and we are just following in their steps.

When you live in a space like this,

the space takes energy out of you.

There's a link that is being built.

Some of my friends say,

"You've been here for 17, 18 years.

"Are you still amazed when you arrive in this place?

"Are you still enchanted?"

And I say yes,

because, actually, I'm getting more and more,

because I understand how special this piece of land is.

There's a vibration.

There's a real vibration here.

In 1855,

Napoleon III ordered that the finest wines of Bordeaux

should be classified and ranked in order of excellence.

Of the thousands of châteaux,

only a handful were rewarded with 'Grand Cru' status.

While some may argue that the 1855 classification

has become outdated,

these same châteaux

remain the jewels in the crown of Bordeaux.

For many, these wines are considered works of art,

but, unlike a painting,

wine only exists for that brief instant in time

after the cork gets pulled.

It's a transient moment,

but it can leave an indelible impression.

I had the privilege

of having a glass of Château Margaux

which was made and bottled

four years after the French Revolution.

Maybe Lafayette himself had tried it.

Maybe Jefferson had tried it.

So you're one with them in a very intimate way.

When you start thinking about that,

you realize that wine really told a story.

In the same moment of this pleasure, this gratification,

there was also a tale told

about the history when that wine was made -

what was going on in the world when that wine was made

and, in particular, a story about the place

and the land and the weather.

It's more than a manufactured or agricultural product,

it's something closer to a miracle.

A miraculous wine

is only achieved when temperature, rain,

sun and wind are delivered in exact proportions.

In 100 years, you might get five or six

legendary type of vintages.

So just in recent memory,

1961 was an absolutely brilliant vintage for Bordeaux.

The next after that, possibly... well, in fact, is 1982.

And after that, 2009.

But this year may rewrite

the Bordeaux history books.

Producers and critics alike

are predicting that the 2010 will be another perfect vintage.

After the harvest of 2010, we realized that,

yes, 2010 should be such an extraordinary -

not just great - but such an extraordinary vintage as '09.

And I just told myself,

"But how will we be able to tell that to people?"

Because last year I had personally told

that I would probably not see that again

in my professional life.

This is an extraordinary coincidence

of perfect climatic conditions.

Each year in early spring,

the Bordeaux wine producers

host an event called 'En Primeur'.

Here, like the catwalk at Milan,

the new season's wines are paraded before

the most powerful and influential

journalists and critics in the wine world.

A great wine just drills down

into your psyche and your perceptions

and strikes a chord,

and... you know, it's like some brass instrument,

it just goes "Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,"

and then... bingo, it's great!

And you respond in a very sensual way.

As soon as you have to use words

to describe your sensation,

you use words in a part of your brain

which is linked to your memory,

to your history, to your taste, to your education.

In my brain, because it's my background, it's music.

This is like a voice, a wine.

It's like an instrument with what we call a 'timbre',

which is different...

A Steinway has not the same...

That's the difference between a Lafite and a Latour,

between a Guarnerius and a Stradivarius.

My perception is like that.

I hear the wine, I don't smell.

I can tell you about my first ever Bordeaux

and I'm still getting memory from it now.

It was when I was a student, all those years ago.

I'm still getting the pleasure from that bottle of wine.

It was as though you'd got

a distillation of something in this glass

which we know came from fruit,

but all the fruit had long since gone.

You were just left with this ethereal, dreamy experience -

and it was a revelation!

Offering a wine En Primeur,

which basically means you are offering a wine