Dear Cha-Wel-Dor-Sue,

Our desire-to spend a month in France was prompted by an invitation from Les Amis DeVin (Friends Of Wine) to join a group in Bordeaux and visit many of the world's renown chateaus in this area. After having determined to make this trip (twelve days), Pat and I decided to use this opportunity and make a back to back Grand Tour of France, visiting most of the major cities and historical sites in the country. By so doing, we would have five days in Paris and an opportunity to visit many areas that time did not permit us to visit on our only other previous trip to France with the Pilpels.

Delta Airlines was our transatlantic carrier and we used our free round trip coach tickets obtained through their Frequent Flyer Program. It was no surprise that we left from Hartford, but it was when we learned that our plane for Paris departed from Cincinnati, Ohio! Our flight was uneventful and we landed at Orly Airport some eight hours later. Our tour representative from Globus Tours met us at the airport and we were driven by bus to the Hotel Mercure on the virtual outskirts of Paris. The accommodations were adequate and to our relief, a Metro or subway station (Pte. des Versailles) was immediately in front of the hotel. We used the "Tube" every day we were there and bought packets of tickets of ten for 35 francs each, or approximately $7. A single trip would have cost us five francs, or a dollar.

France is a diverse country and often compared to an hexagon, with its borders being the English Channel, Atlantic Ocean, Pyrenees Mountains, Mediterranean Sea, Alps Mountains, and the Rhine River. It is both a Northern and Southern European country, connecting the cold Atlantic Ocean with the warm Mediterranean Sea, and the lofty Pyrenees Mountains with the flat lands of Flanders. Each of its regions is quite different from the others and its diversity adds up to its interest and charm. At 212,000 square miles, it is the largest European country after Russia and 37th largest in the world. It stretches 590 miles from North to South and East to West and covers one time zone one hour East of Greenwich time. The time zone is six hours ahead of our Eastern Standard time or New York time. France has some 1800 miles of Atlantic coastline and numerous ports and, of course, fishing is an important part of their economy. It is the fifth largest economic power in the world and it proved to be, to my surprise, primarily an agricultural nation!

The government is a republic with a president who is elected for seven years and who appoints the Prime Minister, who heads the government and its ministries. The National Assembly (Departments) and the Senate (Regions) constitute the two powers of Parliament. The country is Divided into 22 Regions and 96 Departments and in 1990, had a population of 56.3 million people, 73% of whom live in towns. There is a multitude of political parties and rule by coalition is almost invariably necessary. The French are fiercely independent people and feel that they have the inalienable right to form their own political parties. In this regard, I will never forget my first impressions with French culture when I visited Fort de France in Martinique as a ship surgeon on the Grace lines in 1938. The place was filthy and I came away convinced that the French fought for the right to defecate in the streets and exercised that right! The streets were open sewers!

Paris is known as a walking city and deservedly so, and I truly believe Pat and I walked at least five miles every day. As a result, we were exhausted at the end of the day and had little energy left for seeing the town at night. The metro or subway system is very efficient and covers all of Paris, but it usually takes one only to the vicinity of one's destination and one must walk the remainder of the distance, the only exception being the Louvre Museum, which has its own metro station. To see the various monuments, towers, parks, and museums of Paris, one must resign himself to a lot of hiking unless, of course, one can secure a chauffeured car or hail taxis, both expensive propositions.

The highlights of Paris, from an artist's perspective, were our visits to the celebrated Louvre Museum, where art from time immemorial to the year 1844 is displayed, to the fascinating Museo de Orsay, where art from the year 1844 to 1914 was displayed, and to the Pompidou Center, where modern art from the year 1914 to the present time is exhibited. The architecture of each of these three museums is distinctive and all were well designed to display their respective art treasures. The Eiffel Tower, rising 1051 feet above its base, afforded us a beautiful view of the city. We did not go to the top for to do so would have required hours of waiting in line. Visiting the Invalides enabled us to retrace France's military history by wandering through its remarkable military museum. Napoleon's red porphyry mausoleum in the Dome Church was breathtaking. Rodin's Museum was just a step Taway from the Invalides and contained virtually all of Rodin's works. It was very obvious that he was a prolific sculptor and to my surprise, I found myself somewhat disappointed with his works. They appeared to be hastily constructed and rather crude compared to the ancient sculptures seen in the Louvre. A stroll along the Champs Ellysee led us to the Arc deTriomphe but the views along this boulevard were marred by construction for an addition to the subway system. Unfortunately, time did not permit us to climb to the top of the Arc deTriomphe for it would have afforded a beautiful view of the most celebrated boulevard on earth. A long walk through the Tuileries Gardens was delightful, after which, we strolled along the Rue deFaubourg and the St. Honore, the Parisean equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue. There were no bargains, and to make matters worse, the dollar had just reached a new low compared to the French franc. A visit to the Sacre Coeur Church, high on Montmartre's hill afforded a lovely view of the city, and there were the usual clusters of artists, creating, displaying, and selling their art works. Unfortunately, we never took advantage of the opportunity to visit any of the finest restaurants in Paris, and most of our time was spent eating in little bistros or Brasseries, where good food was readily available.

Our first stop on our Grand Tour of France was to Versailles, and I was impressed by how much this beautiful city had grown in size since our last visit. It was immaculately clean, beautifully landscaped, and trees and flowers abounded everywhere. It was here that you will recall the King, Louis XIV, and his court would amuse themselves away from the stench and conspiracies of Paris. It was here that the King transformed the small village and small hunting lodge and chateau into an unequaled display of wealth and privilege. While we enjoyed our tour of the Palace, it was less complete than the one we took with Walter and Yvonne Pilpel many years ago. On this occasion, the King's apartment in the center of the symmetrical palace was not included in the tour and would have required a second ticket and another wait in line in order to do this. On a bus trip, this was not possible. Despite this omission, it is still one of the most magnificent palaces created by man, and the droves of people from all over the world testified to this fact.

Chartres was our next visit and I will long remember the view from the distance of the towering spires. The present cathedral, the fifth at least on the same spot, was constructed in less than 30 years, after a fire in 1194 had destroyed most of the city and its Romanesque cathedral. Chartres has been a pilgrimage shrine for centuries as it has been recorded that Charlemagne's grandson, Charles The Bold, gave to Chartres the Sancta Camisea, accepted as having been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ! Mary's relic is now in the cathedral's treasury. Rodin referred to Chartres magnificent cathedral as the "Acropolis of France". It is renown not only for its size (fourth largest in the world) and for its development of the flying buttresses and lateral support of the walls, but also for its unsurpassed stained glass windows. Fortunately, it was not seriously damaged in the recent wars.

Rouen is the capital of Lower Normandy and famous for its spacious cathedral which, during our visit, was being treated to remove the dirt and grime of centuries. Many of the old town's narrow streets are pedestrianized and lined with street vendors or shops displaying their ware at the curb. It looked initially like a tow-wide flea market. At the end of the Rue de Republique is a modern complex and shrine dedicated to Joan of Arc. It marks the spot where Joan of Arc, aged only 19, was burned at the stake following her trial as a heretic (1431). Twenty-five years later, she was rehabilitated and today, a very modern church with beautiful wooden accouterments and magnificent and story telling stained glass windows occupies the site in her memory.

Normandy was our next area visit and en route to Bayeaux, we toured through Caen, known as "Caen The Crucible". It was here that shells landed on D-Day itself and the city burned for 11 days. After it was liberated by the Canadians on July 9th, it was still bombarded by the Germans for another month. Thus, it is obvious why today, it is a completely rebuilt city and nothing of the past is preserved.

Bayeaux is the site of the Bayeaux Tapestry, an extraordinary masterpiece of embroidery, probably made in England soon after the Conquest. Its 58 episodes with headings recount the story of the Norman Invasion. It is an unparalleled work of art and a historical document of the first order. It is not a tapestry in the usual meaning of the word but a series of appliques stretched upon a coarse linen background. It measures 280 feet long and 33 inches wide and contains an abundance of pictures including men, ships, horses, buildings, and an almost infinite number of details about life in the Eleventh Century. One could no even superficially comprehend the mass of information that passes before one's eyes as one slowly moves by the long, illuminated glass-enclosed work of art.

It was on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and at Normandy beaches, that the invasion of Europe in World War II began and the door blocking Europe's freedom was first breached. On a coast where all sorts of fortifications had been constructed, including concrete pill boxes and bunk-houses, artillery batteries, mined beaches with spikes, piles, barbed-wire entanglements, and dunes and roadblocks, the invasion began. To visit some of these sites, as Pat and I did, makes one wonder how we ever got a foothold in France and won the war. At Hoch Point, our boys had to climb cliffs on the top of which were heavily armed German soldiers under Rommel's command in their hardened concrete bunkers. The Second-Rangers Battalion succeeded in climbing these cliffs using fire brigade ladders installed on rafts. They scaled the summit after shooting grappling irons and ropes into the cliff face under close-naval artillery cover, a Homeric epic! A visit to the American Cemetery at St. Laurent, or Omaha Beach, is a moving and solemn experience. It occupies a piece of land deeded to the USA and contains the remains of almost 10,000 of our 20-year-old heroes. It reminds us that Peace and Freedom are not cheap and not infrequently, in the course of human history, that war seems to be justified to provide a better world for its and succeeding generations. At Arramanches, we enjoyed lunch and saw the remnants of the floating piers that had been used for the delivery of equipment during World War II and which had been destroyed later during a major sea storm.

Mont Saint Michel is one of the greatest religious buildings in Europe and represents 500 years of work from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Centuries. The first Abbey on this site was built after the Archangel Michael appeared to Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, in the Eighth Century. It is constructed on the top of a huge mound of granite and towers 500 feet above the sea and the surrounding flat area. The site is unique in that occasionally at high tide, it is surrounded by water. A quaint and charming city exists at its base with all sorts of restaurants and souvenir shops and it is one of the major tourist attractions of France. The Abbey buildings and the Cloister adorn the summit. It is a long climb but worth the effort for the beautiful vistas of the coastline. When seen from a distance, Mont Saint Michel makes a profound impression which one does not soon forget. It is a gift of the land and the sea and a work of the hand of man! As a fortified site, it was never conquered and religious pilgrims still flock to it today.

The chateaux of the Loire Valley are well known and extensively photographed for their beauty. Attention has been directed at this area because it is considered to have been the heart of the French Renaissance Movement, and its buildings represent architectural artistry at its very best. When the house of Valois returned from the Wars in Italy, they brought back with them ideas of Italian court life, a life of culture, elegance, ostentation, and one immersed in luxury and a love of the spectacular and of being seen! It seems that the measure of French influence at that time changed from that of being a military power to one of living a life of culture and sophistication and Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, carried this out magnificently. The pomp and ceremony of the Italian Visconti Court transformed the staid fortresses of the French nobility in the Loire Valles into flamboyant chateaux with ornamental motifs, friezes, chimneys, magnificent gardens, fountains, hedges with flower beds, ornamental waterworks and all of the like. As the ultimate importation of Italian art and science, Francis I convinced Leonardo da Vinci to return to France with him and converted a residence, Clos-Luce, into a home for him to occupy in his final four years of life. He is buried in the chapel at this site and a splendid museum devoted to the genius of Leonardo exists in the basement of Clos-Luce. This museum was funded by the IBM Company and contains illustrations of Leonardo's original designs and models and displays very vividly the creativeness of this consummate genius of the Arts and Sciences. While in the Loire Valley, we visited the palaces at Amboise, Chenonceau, and Chambourd, but a description of each would entail a story unto themselves and there is yet more to tell of my Grand Tour of France.

Bordeaux was our next stop but my comments about this remarkable city will be told later as I relate my experiences in Wine Country.

Avignon is renown for being the site of the Palace of the Popes and was to have been our next stop on our Grand Tour but unfortunately, the truckers' strike changed all of that and the city of Avignon was completely blocked and inaccessible. Ultimately, we found our way to Nice, crossing the Black Mountains at the southern end of the Grand Massif and all along the way, seeing traffic and trucks everywhere. The gendarmes were helpless and this congestion lasted approximately a week until the military forces forcibly removed the trucks from the roads. In the meantime, it altered our itinerary and we spent more time on the road than would normally have been required. It did have one virtue in that it took us off the main autoways or the equivalent of our interstate highways and necessitated our using the state or local roads. In so doing, it enabled us to see the small towns and the out of way sites which we would never have seen and enjoyed.

Nice, Cannes, Monaco, and Monte Carlo had been visited on a previous occasion and described in one of my previous Dad-O-Grams. Grasse, a suburb of Nice, was visited on this occasion and an interesting visit was made to a perfume factory. We learned there that there are three methods of obtaining the essence of flowers; enfleurage or pressing the flowers, extraction with solvents, and thirdly, distillation. It goes without saying that virtually all of the perfumes made in France originate in Grasse.

The Route des Grandes Alps was taken from Nice to Lyon, and was most picturesque. It took us through Grenoble, the site of a previous Winter Olympics, and enabled us to historically retrace the steps of Napoleon after he escaped from Elba in 1815 and returned to Paris in triumph. His remark that "The eagle will fly from steeple to steeple until he reaches the towers of Notre Dame" is part of French history.

Our visits to Lyon and Dijon were so abbreviated by the long periods of time taken to get there on the country roads that we saw very little of the cities themselves. However, while in Dijon, we did see the Annual Parade of the Brotherhood of the Societie of Confrerie Gastronique, all garbed in their colorful ceremonial robes.

Driving north from Dijon to the town of Beaune, we drove through the celebrated Wine Districts of the Beaujolais, Maconnais, and the Cotes but unfortunately had no time for a visit or a tasting. The town of Beaune was a delight and one of the most beautiful and well-preserved of the small towns we visited in France. It would deserve a revisit! It is most unfortunate when one comes upon a Beaune and must see it and leave it in 30 minutes. It is truly an open air museum of a town, the heart of Burgundy, and where the old powerful dukes of the Dutchy of Burgundy ruled for many years. Its Hospice or Hospital for the Poor is distinguished by its colorful, geometrically designed and patterned tile roofs and ornamental spires.

En route to Rheims, we stopped at Eperney and visited the famed Moet and Chandon Champagne Establishment, home of the super luxury Dom Perignon Champagne. Dom Perignon was the cellar-master at the Abbey of Hautvellers at the end of the 17th Century and he is credited with being the creator of champagne as we know it today, a wine of inexhaustible bubbles and of unique sparkle and liveliness. This process involves a double fermentation, the first occurring in casks and the second in the bottle. The bottles are tilted on racks with the necks down and turned frequently and when all the sediment has accumulated in the neck, this portion of the bottle is frozen. When the cork is removed, the frozen plug is blown out. At this point, wine with varying amounts of sugar is added to create the various strains of the champagne: Brut (dryest), Extra-Dry (less dry), and Sec (least dry). The DemiSec and the Doux are quite sweet and can be considered dessert wines. Most champagnes are aged in the cellar for three years or more. Beneath the city of Eperney, there are stored over 29 million bottles of champagne in 19 miles of tunnels where there is a constant humid cool temperature that is ideal for storing wines.

Cognac was one of our stops en route to Bordeaux and we visited the ancient and historic Otard S.A. Chateau. A well-presented audiovisual show started us on our underground tour and we naturally ended up at the bar, tasting their fine Cognac or brandy. Cognac, like Armagnac, is a product of two distillations of a locally produced thin acid wine of low alcoholic degree. It was interesting that the process of making Brandy evolved because wine shipped to England frequently arrived sea-sick and deteriorated rapidly, and since the essential taste could be preserved and the alcoholic content increased by distillation, this technology was created for the English market and has endured until the present time.

Bordeaux is France's fourth largest city (population 210,000) and sixth largest port and lies 61 miles from the Atlantic Ocean on the Garonne River. Today, except for abandoned wine warehouses along the quays in the Chartron District, it has the elegant appearance of long-standing prosperity. This success in the past was based upon the export of wine by sea to Great Britain and the Netherlands, a trade that continued throughout the Hundred Years War with England! In this context, it is well to remember that Bordeaux was the capital of the Acquitaine, a province that belonged to England for three centuries. Today, trucks transport the wine to Bordeaux Atlantic seaports for worldwide distribution and the river traffic for transportation of wine is almost nil.

The highlights of interest within the city of Bordeaux include: 1) The Grande Theater or Opera House, with its classic Louis XVI style of architecture and a colonnade running entirely around the building and its great staircase resembling that of the Paris Opera House. 2) Parliament Square. 3) The Esplanade des Quinconces and its Monument to the Girondes, a plaza bordered by a beautiful and orderly planting of trees and featured at one end with a column 164 feet high topped by Liberty throwing off her chains and with two huge bronze fountains at the base symbolizing the triumph of the revolution. 4) The Maisson du Von of Bordeaux, an ultramodern structure housing the headquarters of the Bordeaux Wine Trade Council. 5) Place de la Bourse or Stock Market is an architectural jewel. 6) Several churches, particularly St. Andres.

My primary reason for visiting Bordeaux was to get acquainted with its great wines, to see at first hand its world famous vineyards, to visit its renown chateaus or wine estates and to taste its products. In this quest, I was reasonably successful in that we visited some 18 estates and secured a fair sampling of the quality and variety of its wines. We were unsuccessful in the sense that we did not get to any of the so-called "First Growths" or premier wine growing vineyards such as Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Aut Brion, or Chateau Y'Quem. To visit these world renown sites would have required special permits secured long in advance of our arrival and would usually be facilitated only by a personal letter of introduction.

The Bordeaux Wine Region extends over approximately 333,000 acres and constitutes the largest vineyard area producing quality wines in the world. Much of the success of this area is ascribed to its climate which is largely free from all major changes; its "micro-climate" along the river is characterized by early mists in autumn, rapidly dispelled by a warm sun as the day goes on. Exceptions do occasionally occur, as witness the freeze that occurred in 1991 and destroyed virtually all of that year's premium wines. One would never suspect by looking at the ground that smooth, round pebbles on a bed of clay, limestone, or sand, would be perfect for the growth of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Merlot grapes. Nothing else other than grapes would really grow here and the root structures go down to a depth of ten to twenty feet! Usually, a lack of rain is not a problem as the deep roots can find water. It is a problem if too much rain falls and an adequate runoff and drainage fails to occur. Pruning is severe and in the spring, before leafing and flowering occurs, the plants appear as mere stumps. The wine growers learned many centuries ago, after a fire literally destroyed a monk's vineyard, that the following year's harvest was the best ever and wised them up to the fact that all the strength of the plant should go into the grapes and not into the foliage. Most of the picking is done by experienced hands, although in some areas, harvesting is done by machine and this occurs in the more mass production areas. The classification of wines in the Bordeaux area is complex and only a student of wines or an Oenophile need trouble himself with the knowledge of it. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an overall classification covering all of the wine areas or, as they are called, Appelationes, and one must realize that specific ratings apply only to specific Appelationes. There is a classification, for example, for the Medoc Area, based upon judgments made as long ago as in 1855 and modified in 1973. The wines in the Graves Area were classified in 1959. The St. Emilion classification is based upon decisions made in 1954, modified in 1956, and later in 1986. And so it goes! It may be helpful to know that if one sees such descriptive terms as Premier Grand Cru Classe, Grand Cru Classe, Grand Cru Cuvee, Vin de Limited, and De Qualite Superior, one can expect superior wines and can expect to pay a fortune for them. In general, if one sees A.O.C. which indicates Appelationes d'Origin Controlee, one can assume that there is a guarantee of the origin of that wine and generally, it would reflect the quality of the wine.

The label on a bottle of wine tells us a great deal about it and mentions the name of the vineyard, the name of the village where the vineyard is situated, the name of the company or negociant producing it, the vintage year, the classification, if applicable, the A.O.C., the site of the bottling, its alcoholic percentage (usually 12%), and the amount of wine in the bottle (usually 750 cc). If one sees Vin de Table, it indicates it is ordinary table wine or bulk or jug wine as we know it; if one sees Vin de Pays, it indicates a better grade in that more strict controls are placed upon its production and its source.

A few comments about the major wine areas in Bordeaux that we visited might be of interest:

1) The Medoc and Haut Medoc areas stretch along a narrow strip of pebbly sandy soil three to six miles wide a roughly fifty miles long, northwest of Bordeaux, and produces many of the most renown name wines in the world such as Margaux, St. Stephe, St. Julien, Pauillac, Lafite Rothschild, Beycheyville, and so forth. Its production is virtually all red wines.

2) The Graves area covers 43 communes and lies southeast of Bordeaux. This area makes both red and white wines.

3) The Sauternes and Barsac regions are in the Lower Graves Appelationes and are famous for their magnificent white sweet wines. Here, the grapes are not picked in clusters but individually as each grape infected with Botritis Cinera or "Noble Rot" reaches its prime time for picking. This minute fungus attacks both the inside and skin of the grape, causing it to crinkle and turn a brown violet color which reflects a reduction in volume of its juice and an increase in sugar content. Since the "Noble Rot" does not develop on all the grapes at the same time, the grapes are picked in "Successive Sortings". Thus, the harvest takes six weeks or longer. In addition, the grapes must be picked dry and the slightest rain stops all picking. It is no wonder that good Sauternes command such high prices. Chateau Y'Quem is the foremost Sauterne in the world but there are many others almost or equally as good as the locals will attest. I brought home a bottle of Chateau de Malle for my son Wells, who last year presented me with a bottle of Y'Quem.

4) St. Emilion, Pomerol and Fronsac areas all lie in the Libourne District just west of the city of Bordeaux and on the Right Bank of the Dordogne River. These Appelationes, though small in area, produce some of the finest wines of France. They are usually blends of Merlot, Sauvignon Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc. The wines of the Chateaux Petrus in Pomerol is the most expensive wine in the world! Severe quality control is exercised by the Jurats or official judging body, and all wines of poor or mediocre qualities are promptly rejected. Furthermore, production is strictly limited for each area, thus reducing the amount of wine available for sale from these areas. We visited the small hamlet of St. Emilion on two occasions and were very surprised with the beauty, antiquity and charm of this fortified wall medieval town perched high on the top of a rocky prominence. Carved out of rock in the center of the village is an old church over a thousand years old and which was a witness to Richard the Lionhearted's pleadings for Crusaders to accompany him to the Holy Land. The St. Emilion wines were honored by the English as the "King of Wines" as the quality of its wines had been controlled for eight centuries by an elected council of peers, known as Jurats. The deliberations of this group take place each year with a red-robed ceremony in one of the town's gothic cloisters which Pat and I were able to visit and to photograph during our visit. The town is also known for its famous macaroons and for its numerous "Caves des Degustation" or small wine museums that display and sell wines and where tastings are possible.

5) The Entre Deaux-mer is a large Appelationes lying between the Dornogne and Garonne Rivers and is noted for its dry white wines that merit the approval of wine lovers throughout the world. The wines here are usually a blend of Semillon, Muscadet, and Sauvignon Blanc, and any white wine with a label White Entre Deaux-Mer Bordeaux can be recommended. It should also be added that fine dry Bordeaux white wines also come from the Graves and the Cote de Blaye Appelationes.

Our wine tasting experiences usually took place at the wine estates or chateaus and followed an introduction by the proprietor or manager of the winery. He would then conduct us personally on a tour of the production facilities and generally a question and answer period was provided. Many times the presentation was entirely in French and it was necessary for our tour leader Vin Marotolli to provide humorous translations.

While most of us are aware of how wine is made, perhaps a few words of the story may be retold. To begin with, the grapes are harvested in the fall and transported rapidly to the winery, where they are destemmed and pressed. After this is accomplished, fermentation takes place, usually in concrete vats or in more modern stainless steel tanks. This process results in the splitting of a molecule of sugar into two molecules of ethyl alcohol and two molecules of carbon dioxide which escapes as a gas. The agent is a yeast, a living plant organism capable of cell reproduction, and the naturally-occurring yeast found on grapes is Saccharomyces. The yeast creates catalytic agents called enzymes that perform the conversion of the sugar into alcohol. It is that grape juice is a complex liquid and contains more than simply sugar. Substances such as acids, tannins, pigments, proteins, and essentially oils may end up as glycerin esters and aldehydes. These factors may add or detract from the final quality of the wine. It is obvious then that an experienced wine maker will find it necessary to control the fermentation process and cut it off when necessary. Otherwise, it might proceed too far and end up as wine vinegar. Many cellar masters prefer to use their own strain or variety of yeast rather than relying upon Mother Nature and the naturally occurring variety Saccharomyces.

The fermentation of red wine usually takes place in seven to ten days while a vat of white wine is usually accomplished at a lower temperature and takes a while longer. Since all grape juice is clear, all wines would normally be white or clear. It is only when fermentation is permitted to take place in the presence of the red skins that it takes on a color such as rose or red or rouge. After the fermentation is complete, the wine is "racked" or drawn off from the fermentation tanks into barrels, usually of oak, and previously sterilized by being sulfurized. Since the barrels are porous, there is leakage due to evaporation and it is necessary to replace this loss with sound wine. This is repeated many times and any aggregates of solid matter is removed through the bung hole. The use of egg white or albumin aids in the precipitation of the solids or so-called lees. These are sometimes referred to as impurities. Also during this period, a second fermentation occurs an a harsh malic acid is converted into a softer lactic acid. During the first year, the wine is transferred into new barrels at least three times. After this and when the acid is clarified and sufficient aging has taken place, it is bottled. Oak barrels are used for storage because it has the ability to import tannins into the wine and this feature apparently adds to the durability or the ability of the wine to be preserved for longer periods of time. After the wine is bottled, further maturing may take place and the wine can develop a more mellow quality.

There is an art and science to wine tasting as well as a lot of hoopla and showmanship. It is a pleasure to watch experts go through their routine and while their styles may be different and their descriptions vary, they do adhere to a step by step process. To begin with, wine must appeal to one's eye, nose, and pallet, and usually one begins with observing the color, its brilliance, intensity, shade, limpidity, and transparency. The use of a proper wine glass helps in evaluating the color characteristics. Next, the nose comes into play and the aromas are appreciated both with the wine still and after twirling it. The intense bouquet can be compared to the scent of flowers, fruits, confectioneries, aromatic herbs, spices, woods, and even animals! Finally, to complete the tasting, the mouth and the palate are called into play and the wine's taste, balance and harmony are evaluated. The sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, and acidness are determined, as well as the degree of tannins. If the wine lingers in the palate, it is considered to have a "length in the mouth". After all is said and done, the effect that wine has on one's senses determines whether we judge it to be a good wine or not.

Certainly, my appreciation of wine is helped by its appearance and its characteristics but I drink it largely for its effect and the sociability it provides.

Finally, Pat and I felt that our wine experiences in Bordeaux brought us a new appreciation of wine, its history, and the role it has played in civilized society. We now know more about the famous chateaus and the differences in techniques that each of the famous chateaus employ in the production of their products. To be sure, wine-making is a science but to each man making his own wine, it is more of an art than a science.

Love,

DAD

CEJ/nb

T10/20/92