Wine list from 1914

WINE TALK
1

Seems wine geeks have always been so:

http://www.thewinesociety.com/resources/downloads/july-1914.pdf

2

Interesting do’s and don’t’s. And a fair number of Californian wines, surprisingly

3

And even some Aussie stuff. Complete shut out of Italy though except for one Chianti and a Campanian white.

4

I love that they weigh in on travel shock (p. 8)(taken for granted) and decanting (p. 9)(mandatory). Imagine if the had to post their views here!

Lots of other nice tidbits:

–The Spanish sacramental wine is more expensive than the Rioja.
–The best Germans are more expensive than the Corton or classified growth clarets, and they say Moselle wines should be drunk young, in contrast to Rhine wines.
–The California offerings include a “medium dry” “Hoch” (riesling, presumably) and a Chasselas (whatever that was at the time).
–Algerian brandy was relatively expensive.
–The Scotches are relatively young.

5

I have a 1940 wine list from Antoine’s in NOLA where the most expensive whites on the list by FAR are a half bottle of Trockenbeerenauslese and a 20 year old WHITE Rioja Reserva Ygay from Murrieta.

6

I’d heard before that top German rieslings were typically the most expensive wines in that era. This corroborates that.

7

Prices seem higher than I would have thought. Very cool. Thanks.

8

A sparkling white wine from Ducru Beaucaillou? How cool is that?

And yes, the prices do seem a bit high - what is the monetary unit they are using?

9

From the Wine List: “Chateau Pavie (St. Emilion), 1904, ripe”

Some things never change.

10

Chasselas is probably chasselas dore the grape. Eyrie is actually bottling this nowadays. Definitely not common though.

11

Very Cool! Thank You for Posting!

12

It has the longest list of synonyms I’ve ever seen.

There were Swiss Italians in Sonoma County, so perhaps they brought it over.

13

This is terrific.

They’d fit right in here with one of the commandments:

“Don’t let stocks run low.”

Of course they mean that new arrivals need time to settle. But still, never, ever let your stocks run low. I love it.

14

Wow. I knew about Gutedel (and drank a lot of it in Baden) and a couple of others, but that list is wild.

15

What’s the price of S and D?

a case of 12 btls of Pavie is 22 S…
is that … a lot?

16

Mark, I’m not sure if I’m correct here, but “S” should be shilling and “D” should be pence. Per a monetary website that projects to $14 in US Dollars per bottle. However, the real “value” relative to wages (then and now) might be around $82.

17

22 S. (shillings, BTW; 12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 GB Pound before they went metric where 100 pence = 1 pound) equals about 2.05 dollars at today’s exchange rate; factoring for inflation since 1914 using CPI inflation calculator gives buying power equivalent of 48.77 in today’s dollars. So no, it’s not very expensive at all; 4 bucks and change a bottle.

18

This is really interesting. Thanks for the post. One thing that caught my eye on a quick read: “Burgundy possesses more tannin and body than Claret”. I’ll go through all in more detail.

19

This is bullshit. Why do we have to pay so freakin’ much for a bottle of wine nowadays???

[head-bang.gif]

20

Very interesting Roberto, thanks!

This took place in July, 1914. Just one month later, things would be very different in Europe, and wine somewhat less of a priority.