A Bordeaux from the Past

If you thought Indians were just getting the hang of wines, hold on and sip a little bit of history along with a Bordeaux red. “In the 19th century, 50 per cent of our wine trade was with India,” says Jean Guillaume Prats (picture below), director-general of Chateau Cos D Estournel, a wine label from the heart of Bordeaux. “We shipped barrels of the ruby-red liquid to the ports of Bombay and Calcutta where it was bottled and sent to the royal families of Jodhpur and Jaipur.”

Don’t choke on your wine yet, here is some more. The Frenchman, who has brought a few of his new wines to the country, even has a section of the chateau’s museum dedicated to India. “It is laden with artefacts, paintings and carpets from 19th century India,” says Subhash Arora, president of the Indian Wine Academy, who visited the Cos chateau in 2005. Even the official records of the 18th century wine brokers Tastet-Lawton mention Louis Gaspard d’Estournel, who founded Cos in 1811, exporting his wines to the Calcutta port in exchange for horses from the royal family of Jodhpur. The presence of the Indian elephant on the winery’s label and logo are also proof of the Indian influence. “So impressed was Louis Gaspard with India that the architecture of the chateau has been inspired by the Rambagh palace in Jaipur,” chirps Prats, who is on his first visit to India.

Its label Les Pagodes de Cos, named after the pagodas in India, costs Rs 5,500 a bottle, while the premium level Cos d’Estournel range comes for Rs 15,000-30,000 a bottle. The second wine, Les Pagodes de Cos 2004, has a deep ruby colour and a spicy touch that even Prats can’t explain. “I assigned some science students to find out what gives off the spicy taste but they could not figure out,” says Prats. But it will sure go well with some Indian food, as Louis Gaspard would guffaw.

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