I used to love shopping at the Caves de la Madeleine in Paris, France back in the 1970's. I got this copy in 1980 the summer that my fiancee and I left Paris. We had a month off in Paris to enjoy all that we had learned and all the people that we had met before returning home to the United States. It had been a wonderful time and I know that this summer we drank the night before leaving two great wines, both purchased at Steven Spurrier's Caves de la Madeleine. That must be when I picked up this brochure.
It's too bad that so many of the details I have forgotten now. It's also curious that by looking at this summer pamphlet from the Caves de la Madeleine that so many memories do return. All this has been spurred on by the new movie that was just released this August and which I will have to go see soon with my wife and celebrate this summer of ours and all our great memories in Paris from 1979 through August 1980. The movie Bottle Shock is based on the now really famous blind-tasting of wines that Steven Spurrier and his staff ( I must believe that it was a group effort between Steven, Patricia Gallagher, Jon Winroth ( that passed away at the age of 70 recently ) and others. I don't know all the details and I don't want to know just yet. I prefer instead to record my memories and my imagining of the event and how it came about before they get get forgotten or altered by facts that I did not know. I'm happy to learn more but for the moment I just want to bring to the table my observations from the early 1970's before this momentous event occured between the California winemaker/owners and the French winemaker/owners.
The two wines that my fiancee ( now wife ) and I drank on our last evening were a bottle of the LEGRAS " Brut Integral " from Champagne ( which we both loved perhaps more than any other champagne up to that point ) and a bottle of the 1970 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. We had already enjoyed a marvelous " last meal " in Paris and had gotten back to our rented apartment just off the Rue Pernety in the 14th arrondisement and we were stretching the evening out with these two last, great French wines. It was tough, we were happy and full and exhausted and yet we managed - brilliantly. The LEGRAS " brut integral " was magical. Unfortunately the 1970 Chateau Mouton Rothschild was tight as a nail and thoroughly unpleasant no matter how much time we waited it would not open or budge or smile or wink or flutter it's eyelids, sashay, bow, curtsy, tell a joke, flip it's hair, shift it's shoulder - nothing, nada, rien : pas bouvable a mon avis a cette point la! What a loss, what a waste, I was still inexperienced in these things. We should have waited. We did not know enough at that point. It was a really tough learning experience. Back when I bought it in the early 1970's when I still had some money it cost me around 160 or so francs I recollect. The LEGRAS from Chouilly I had just purchased cost me fift francs. I know because I can refer to the flier from the summer ( ete ) of 1980 when we bought it together. I am sure that there had been discussion. After all, fifty francs back then was quite a bit of money.
Back in 1980 a bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvee N.V. Brut from Ay cost 75 francs. The Bollinger RD Tradition 1970 cost 220 francs and a bottle of the 1961 Bollinger RD Tradition cost 280 francs. The 1961 seems like a bargain, even back then. What would it cost today if any were still available?
Steven also had some California wines on his shelves back in the summer of 1980. The Clos du Val Napa Zinfandel cost 55 francs, the Chateau Montelena ( the winner of the 1976 blind-tasting for the 1973 I believe ) 1976 cost 105 francs and the 1975 Stags Leap Lot 2 Cabernet Sauvignon ( Stags Leap wone the 1976 blind-tasting as well ) cost 80 francs. Steven also sold some California Chenin Blanc 1977 from Villa Mount Eden, Napa for 45 francs. He also had the Fetzer 1975 Sonoma Zinfandel for 65 francs. Other California wineries that he had listed are : Mayacamas, Conn Creek, Spring Mountain, Chateau Chevalier, Hoffman Mountain Ranch ( Central Coast ), Dry Creek, Joseph Phelps, Sterling 1974 Merlot at 70 francs, and from Oregon the Sokol Blosser 1977 Chardonnay , Yamhill County for 65 francs.
I loved shopping at the Caves de la Madeleine. When I first started I knew practically nothing and the American/ British staff would walk me through the rows and make suggestions. I want to thank them now even after all these years. I had wide eyes and wonder written all over my face when I would walk in during my lunch break from working at the American Embassy just a couple of blocks away at the Place de la Concorde. I would be thinking something like what new taste discovery would we enjoy tonight at out dinner table with the meal that my mother would have just learned to make. She was and still is a big inspiration in my life. She embraced the Paris experience and shared it completely with me and my two brothers. She'd go to the local markets and shop for interesting foods, cheeses, breads, salads, anything and bring it home and prepare it. We ate like royalty and began to drink like royalty, too - thanks in large part to the Caves de la Madeleine.
This si the second installment in this story of Bottle Shock the movie and all that it has brought back into my thoughts now as well as what it will probably do, too when I finally see it. It's Wednesday morning at 10:45 AM as I type this, August 27th, 2008 - twenty-eight years after our last summer in Paris before getting married. Cheers, TONY
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