Source: 'cathdrwg' (via Flickr)
With centuries of tradition, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Bordeaux of today is a landscape (and industry) that has remained the same for centuries. Wine appreciation is, after all, all about the subtlest of differences between blends that change by the narrowest proportions year on year. It’s therefore surprising to find that Bordeaux wine has weathered major upheavals and has changed in some rather fundamental ways in the last two centuries.
The first growth wines are principally composed of Cabernet Sauvignon with varying amounts of three other red wine grapes in the blend: Merlot is often the secondary, with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and occasionally Petit Verdot. But there are six red grapes permitted for viticulture under the tightly controlled Bordeaux directives: Malbec and Carménère, noticeable by their absence. And with Malbec at least, this neglect has certainly not always been the case.
In the middle of the 19th Century, when the Bordeaux Classification was being drawn up and the growths decided, Chateaux throughout Bordeaux wineries were growing Malbec. In fact, as many as 60% of all vineyards had Malbec vines and even the first growths favoured the grape in their blends. This contrasts heavily with the modern picture. In all of France, only the Cahors appellation in the South West plants significant quantities of the grape, rendered necessary by AoC regulations requiring 70% Malbec in any blend. In Bordeaux, the variety is approached with caution by producers, even despite its growing significance (and market resonance) as the flagship red wine of Argentina.
This significant shift didn’t come about on a whim. Malbec growers were among the hardest hit when the entire French wine industry was very nearly destroyed. The Great French Wine Blight of the latter half of the 19th Century changed the very roots of French wine (literally). A North American Aphid, the Phylloxera, was brought to Europe and it quickly became apparent that European vines had no natural defence against them, their numbers unchecked by local predators. By the middle of the 1870s about 40% of France’s vineyards had been destroyed by the parasite and the disease they brought with them. Even in the relatively early days of wine investment, such a loss was a major financial disaster.
The eventual solution was drastic, but necessary. Many speculate that viticultural experimentation with American root-stock was the direct cause of Phylloxera’s migration; regardless, that same experimentation yielded the solution. Though resisted by an industry that to this day prides itself on the purity and tradition of its vineyards, the mass grafting of American vines to French followed successful experiments in the 1870s and 80s.
In the wake of this agricultural (but also financial) disaster, Bordeaux wine as an industry sought grape types that had proven their resilience through the years of the epidemic. Malbec had always been known as a liability. The grape itself is susceptible to rot, frost, downey mildew and coulure; Even high yields can mean a lack of consistent flavour. And by the time that France suffered the severe frosts of 1956 (that killed off 75% of the Malbec crop), the typical Bordeaux winery had simply had enough. Making the best of a bad situation, they replaced Malbec with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Occasionally, lesser Chateau will attempt to distinguish themselves by reintroducing the grape, but most producers are less brave. And from the perspective of wine investment, that’s probably for the best.
