Not ink, not alcoholic, no wood

Posted on | April 23, 2007

Whilst in Bordeaux I took the time to speak to Thierry Manoncourt at Chateau Figeac to ask him about his life and how things have changed during his stewardship of the estate since the 1940s - he will be ninety in September this year. The interview will be podcast in the near future (in French only I’m afraid).

Manoncourt felt that perhaps he had neglected the press too much during his tenure and by way of illustration told me this amusing anecdote.
An American critic suggested to Manoncourt that he never understood why he had made the wines of Figeac the way that he had.

The critic liked his wines dark…

Manoncourt replied that he was not a manufacturer of ink.

The critic liked his wines to be alcoholic…

Manoncourt replied that he didn\’t need to make wines of 13º or 13.5º as he still remembered the excellent wines of Lafite which were at 11º or 11.5º and after drinking a bottle ‘I could still do some work.’

The critic stated his preference for wines that were aged in new oak barrels. Manoncourt replied:

‘yes you like it when the wines scrape the back of your throat so that way you know there is some tannin and you can say that the proprietors have made some efforts with their wines because because new oak barrels are expensive and there is thus the recompense of a good score which comes from making this investment. Figeac has used new oak barrels for twenty years, long before you even came to Bordeaux and what I want to make is a wine where one doesn’t notice any trace of wood because I don’t want to make an oak beverage and because I make red wine’

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