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    A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century
    A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century
    A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century

    By Jim Chevallier

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    About this ebook

    One of the most complete histories of wine in France was written in the eighteenth century, a long chapter within Le Grand d'Aussy's masterwork on French food and wine (hopefully but misleadingly titled “History of the private life of the French from the origin of the nation until our days”). Le Grand starts with the Gauls, Greeks and Romans and the introduction of wine into France before discussing its development over the centuries and the appearance of the retail trade - merchants, taverns, inns - where wine could first be bought "by the pot". Starting with the first earthen vessels and wineskins used to transport wine, he traces the appearance of that useful microtechnology, the bottle.
    Drawing (as he does throughout) on a wealth of earlier authors, Le Grand lists the various wines that had been most popular over the centuries and then gives a brief look at some of the most commonly used grapes. He touches on wine from unexpected places such as Brittany, Normandy and... Paris, which for centuries was known for its wine before detouring for some pages into a squabble between Burgundy and Champagne.
    The French also drank foreign wines, including, once, those of Gaza and Cyprus, and he casts a glance at those before describing the ways in which wine could be used as a gift or payment and the celebrations associated with it. He ends with a look at "artificial wines", the highly flavored ancestors of todays cocktails and with the misnamed "fruit wines".
    Though frequently cited in culinary texts, Le Grand's masterwork is rarely translated at length and this new modern translation is a rare opportunity to experience the scholarship and lively tone of this classic work directly.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJim Chevallier
    Release dateAug 17, 2011
    ISBN9781465779489
    A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century
    Author

    Jim Chevallier

    Jim Chevallier is a food historian who has been cited in "The New Yorker", "The Smithsonian" and the French newspapers "Liberation" and "Le Figaro", among other publications. CHOICE has named his "A History of the Food of Paris: From Roast Mammoth to Steak Frites" an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019. His most recent work is "Before the Baguette: The History of French Bread".He began food history with an essay on breakfast in 18th century France (in Wagner and Hassan's "Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century") in addition to researching and translating several historical works of his own.He has been both a performer and a researcher, having worked as a radio announcer (WCAS, WBUR and WBZ-FM), acted (on NBC's "Passions", and numerous smaller projects). It was as an actor that he began to write monologues for use by others, resulting in his first collection, "The Monologue Bin". This has been followed by several others over the years.

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      A History of Wine in France from the Gauls to the Eighteenth Century - Jim Chevallier

      About Le Grand d'Aussy's Work

      The current volume has been extracted, translated and retitled from Pierre Jean-Baptiste Le Grand d'Aussy's classic work on French food and drink, which has come down to us with the slightly misleading title of Histoire de la vie privée des Français depuis l’origine de la nation jusqu’à nos jours; that is, History of the private life of the French from the origin of the nation until our days. Though Le Grand originally intended to produce such a comprehensive work, in practice he only finished the three volumes on food and drink (first published in 1783). Incomplete as these may be in terms of the overall project, they are almost manically thorough in their examination of the specific subject and have remained, over the centuries, some of the prime sources on the subject. Not only do even modern writers continue to draw on them for key information, more than one writer (in both French and English) has shamelessly copied whole stretches of Le Grand's work, well after it was written, and presented it as their own.

      Le Grand at one point refers to himself as a compiler and certainly one of the strengths of his work is that it brings together a wealth of information drawn from earlier sources, some classics of their respective periods, some profoundly obscure. He began as a Jesuit and brings to his task the methodical, erudite and demanding precision which made the Jesuits so admired as teachers. But his personality – passionate, determined, unsparing, but also compassionate, even witty and sensual – shines through. When he thinks a previous writer has written nonsense, he says so, succinctly. When he feels obliged to work his way through fastidious, if important material, he lets his impatience show. When he includes an anecdote more because it is entertaining than because it is essential, he does so without apology. At the rare moments when he draws on his personal experience or acquaintance, he brings us vividly into the instant.

      He is, in a word, not only an informative but a lively and enjoyable writer, but one who, in English, is more often cited than translated at length. The present effort is intended to remedy that, if only in small measure.

      About This Translation

      Le Grand regularly includes sideheads in his text, and most of the headings used here are taken from these. Some have been promoted to clarify the work's structure and a few high-level headings have been added to group these conceptually.

      This is not, in any meaningful way, an annotated edition, but certain phrases or references have seemed to require clarification or alternate suggestions; the latter appear here in-line, in square brackets ([]). The alphabetic footnotes are Le Grand's own and originally appeared at the bottom of the physical page in each case.

      In most cases, archaic spellings of places, etc. have been converted to their modern equivalents. Where the equivalence is too uncertain to be definitive, a note appears after the word in question. Where no meaningful information has been found, the word is left as it is in the original text.

      With few exceptions, the titles of the many works cited have been left in French, since presumably those who wish to consult them will be seeking the works in that language. Though the work includes numerous quotes from Latin, most are preceded by a paraphrase in the main text and no attempt has been made to translate these.

      An Overview of Le Grand d'Aussy on Wine

      Le Grand d'Aussy's chapters on wine appear at the end of the first volume and the start of the second volume in his first edition, after a section on beer and cider and before those on brandies, spirits and hot and cold drinks. Since modern readers may be more or less interested in the different aspects of the subject he chooses to address, this overview is provided as a guide to what lies ahead.

      He begins with a look at the origins of wine in France – a subject on which ancient authorities differ – and the trade in it between the Gauls and the Romans. Though wine was adopted early in France, vineyards initially did not appear far above the Cevennes. Some of the best grapes were already found in Bordeaux, though other regions (not always definitively identified) were mentioned.

      After discussing Gallic methods of grape cultivation, he discusses the qualities of some of their wines and the use of pitch (among other substances) to flavor – arguably adulterate – wine. After touching on some of the other means of improving wines (including the use of sugar in his own period), he describes the use of smoke by both the Gauls and the Romans to thicken and age wine, and provides a detailed look at of one way of doing this.

      France's later primacy as a wine-producing nation was briefly imperiled when the emperor Domitian ordered (in C. E. 92) that most French vines be torn up. This forced the Gauls back to the beer and other drinks they had known before wine. When, two centuries later, Probus not only allowed the vines to be replanted but had Roman soldiers help in this effort, wine cultivation soon extended all over France. Narbonnaise wines became particularly well-known and vineyards were important enough to be protected by Salic law. The kings themselves now had vineyards, even, Le Grand says, within the walls of the Louvre. Wine became one of France's principal exports.

      This primacy was again threatened when, in 1566 Charles IX demanded that vines be torn up. Luckily, this edict was less rigorously executed and again abrogated by a later ruler, though several others ordered that care be taken that vineyards did not excessively displace cultivation of products like wheat.

      Having provided this overview of the development of wine in France, Le Grand turns to its sale, particularly in retail. This seems to have initially been a way to dispose of wine that was not being otherwise sold, but proved profitable enough in and of itself for kings to sometimes co-opt the right. Various outlets appeared for selling wine by the pot (typically about two French pints, though sizes varied). Wine merchants sprang up; inn-keepers sold wine on their premises; cabarets and taverns (then very similar, except for the food they could sell) become more common. Wine criers, who began by announcing the prices of wine, ended up crying everything from deaths to lost animals.

      Le Grand tells us that he had gathered a great deal of information on the making of wine, but decided not to pass most of it on – reasonably enough since, by his time, a number of works had appeared on making wine. He offers some random highlights from that research: the use of black (dark red) grapes to make white wine; the use of wood chips to clarify wine; and the production of a special, rather poor, wine called expense for the workers.

      After this brief section, he offers an overview of the different containers used for making and transporting wine. This includes amphorae, barrels, brick cisterns, wine-skins and, only relatively late, bottles.

      He then begins an inventory of the wines which had been most esteemed in France up until his time. He later refers to the various lists he has collected as a dry enumeration and points out that, from one period to the next, the names mentioned changed a great deal. Since modern readers may find some of this slow going as well, it may be useful to give some highlights of what he presents.

      A number of modern names appear on these early lists, if sometimes with less focus than today: Anjou, Arbois, Ausone, Auvernat, Auxerre, Bagnols, Brignoles, Cahors, Canteperdrix, Castelnau, Cassis, Caux, Chassagne, Chateau-Thierry, Coucy, Cuers, Epernay, Frontignan, Gaillac, Graves, Irancy, Mâcon, Madon, Manosque, Marignane, Pouilly, Saint-Avertin, Saint-Emilion, Saint Laurent, Saint-Pourçain, Sancerre, Taissy, Tonnerre, Verzenay, Vezelay and Vouvray. Chabli is sometimes included here in lists for Champagne, leading at least one English writer to claim there was a separate town of that name there; but Chablis (then in Burgundy, and already well-known), was at one point part of Lower Champagne. Some wines were already known as superior, notably Hermitage, Nuits, Pommard and Romanée. (Strangely, Le Grand does not mention Haut-Brion, which was already well-known; Lafitte, Latour and Margaux were mainly mentioned in 1790 and after.) Probably the most popular in general were, from Burgundy, the wines of Beaune and, from Champagne, the wines of Ay (which Le Grand mentions

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