One Up On A Frenchman (Mannerisms)

One Up On A Frenchman

A satisfying moment of one-upmanship occurred in Bandol, in the South of France last week. There, in a wine shop, was a bottle of Croizet-Bages.

"A fifth growth, M'sieur?" I asked the manager, a long-faced, bespectacled, academic-looking cove.

"Non", he said, "C'est un Grand Cru."

"But surely Croizet-Bages is in the 1855 classification and is classed, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?" I asked.

"Non", he replied, "after fifth growth there is another class - Grand Cru."

"Surely", I persisted, "after fifth growth comes Cru Bourgeois? Grand Cru is a St Emilion classification which doesn't apply to the Medoc."

The manager looked down his long French nose unmistakably implying: 'You, an Englishman, speaking execrable French, dare to disagree with a French vendeur de vin on the subject of French wine. I spit on you.'

What he actually said was: "Non. This is a Grand Cru, a class of wine ranked below fifth growth wine."

I left, bewildered.

Later, I tapped '1855 classification' into Google and up came the list of those 60-odd Medoc chateaux which were in 1855, and still are today, the best claret vineyards in France.

And there, giving me my nice moment of one-upmanship, in among the fifth growths, was my Croizet-Bages.

Drinking it, a couple of nights later, was particularly satisfying.

Posted by David Manners on June 23, 2008 5:48 AM | Permalink|

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/29426

Comments (4)

Mike Cowan:

Hi David - based upon your interchange with the "wine merchant" in Bandol, France re. a bottle of Croizet-Bages, I thought you might find the invoked URL interesting (?)

Mike C.

Posted by Mike Cowan | June 23, 2008 9:31 PM

Posted on June 23, 2008 21:31

david manners:

Thanks Mike that's very interesting because I had always thought that Bandol was renowned for its rose which is fabulious, Best wishes, David

Posted by david manners | June 23, 2008 9:57 PM

Posted on June 23, 2008 21:57

Mike Cowan:

Hi David (again) - the "invoked URL" in my original comment is:
http://www.intowine.com/bandol-provence-s-best-kept-secret.

Now all your readers can also share the interesting article.

Posted by Mike Cowan | June 24, 2008 12:30 AM

Posted on June 24, 2008 00:30

Mike Cowan:

Hi David (it's me - one more time!) -

NOTE - the URL provided above should be WITHOUT a period at the end, that is:

URL = http://www.intowine.com/bandol-provence-s-best-kept-secret

Sorry for any confusion that this "PERIOD" might have caused when trying to access the article.

Mike C.

Posted by Mike Cowan | June 24, 2008 12:36 PM

Posted on June 24, 2008 12:36

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 23, 2008 5:48 AM.

The previous post in this blog was Doing A Runner From Haiti, By Charlie Sporck.

The next post in this blog is Seagate, Intel and Otellini's Options.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Mannerisms

Ruminations on the semiconductor industry from David Manners