Wine 101: The Fashion Of Wine Part II: From Prestige to Price
As we discussed last week, wine trends were slow to take hold in the Middle Ages. But as information about wine became more widely available, trends moved faster and faster, and the 19th century in particular proved to be a pivotal turning point in the history of European wine.
At the time, it was common for merchants to write about the wines they carried in an attempt to popularize whatever it was they had on hand. In 1816, a Parisian wine merchant named André Jullien wrote a book called “Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus” in which he cataloged his travels from China all the way to South Africa, reviewing each wine he encountered along the way. This became one of the first European wine books available outside France, but the most popular section was the one he wrote on Bordeaux and the Left Bank.
It is said that these writings helped set the stage for the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux, which became one of the first modern obsessions in wine culture. It created an atmosphere in the wine-drinking community of prestige — not necessarily based on where the wines came from, but their lofty price tags. And on this episode of “Wine 101,” Keith discusses how it all went down. Tune in for more.
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“Wine 101” was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big old shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin for creating VinePair. Big shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of VinePair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast. Also, Darby Cicci for the theme song. And I want to thank the entire VinePair staff for helping me learn something new every day. See you next week.
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