Bourgueil
Suis-moi, laisse Cousture, et allons à Bourgueil,
Où, quenouille, on te doit recevoir d’un bon œil,
Car le petit présent qu’un loyal ami donne
Passe des puissants rois le sceptre et la couronne.
Les Amours de Marie, Pierre de Ronsard (1524 – 1585)
Bourgueil est dans mon coeur, c’est le meilleure des adresses.
Jean Carmet (1920 – 1994)
The 16th century wordsmith Pierre de Ronsard, arguably France’s greatest Renaissance poet, is most readily associated with the wines of the lower Loir, these days sold under the appellations of Jasnières and the Coteaux du Loir (by the way, if you recognised the name, and you weren’t raised on his works in a French classroom, you might recall it from my guide to Jasnières). The strength of this association should not surprise us, given that Ronsard was born on the banks of the Loir, and spent many of his formative years there. His poems, some of which attest to the virtues of the river’s wines, are an eternal testament to his love of the region.
Ronsard was no stay-at-home scribe though; he was well travelled, and he knew the countryside and river banks around Bourgueil well. His love for the region had a less vinous focus though; indeed, the main attraction seems to have been a solitary teenage cow-herder named Marie he met one day while taking a walk along the banks of the Loire. In the excerpt from the rather lengthy sonnet Les Amours de Marie above he aims to woo the object of his affections with a quenouille (part of a spinning wheel), a gift he sees as more powerful than le sceptre et la couronne (sceptre and crown) and which will be received with un bon œil (a good eye).
History does not tell us exactly how the gift was received.
I can’t help thinking that a flacon of the local wine might have been a better choice?
