Château Beauregard, 2015 – 2022
Pierre-Élie Barry-Berthomieu sat slumped at the dining table, prisoner to an unfinished meal of pintade and potatoes. Pintade, guinea fowl to you and me, he was fine with. Potatoes, however, made him nervous. Their cultivation had long been forbidden in France, principally as they were believed to cause leprosy, but as a result of the tenacious efforts of Napoleon’s agronomist Parmentier, who had spent much of his life promulgating the benefits of potato consumption, they had more recently gained in popularity. Suddenly, everywhere he went, Pierre-Élie was presented with potatoes.
And now in his own household too.
He pushed the plate away, and sighed. His woes lay heavy on his shoulders.
Pierre-Élie lived in tumultuous times, and despite having inherited a significant and historic vineyard in Pomerol from his father, Pierre-Henri Barry-Berthomieu, his position was anything but secure. Born during the reign of King Louis XVIII, who had been restored to the throne after year’s of rudderless post-Revolutionary government, he could remember his father telling him – when he had been just nine years old – of the uprising which had replaced Louis with Charles X. The July Monarchy, as it was known, had lasted just 18 years, before the 1848 Revolution kick-started the Second Republic.
“All this revolution,” he cried out, his words echoing around the otherwise empty hall. “People don’t have enough time to drink any more!”
Indeed, for Pierre-Élie, the situation was dire. His vineyard was failing, he was losing money hand over fist, and he had taken to a rather radical solution. A few years ago he had begun planting common madder, which at the time had been in demand for its roots, which are as thick as your index finger, and bleed the same colour when cut. The plant grew well on the estate’s more sandy and gravelly soils, and the harvest sold for a good sum. The roots were processed to produce the rich red dye known as rose madder, popular with France’s textile trade.
“They probably used it to dye the tricolour,” he muttered to himself.
The French tricolour had been reintroduced as France’s flag in 1830, replacing the plain white flag of the Bourbon king.
The problem was, even with all these efforts, Pierre-Élie was still facing bankruptcy. He had since given over a much larger part of the vineyard to the madder plant, Rubia tinctorum, pulling up some of his vines in the process. Other parts he no longer tended, the vines now growing wild, as Pierre-Élie poured all his time and money into his rose madder basket.
But now, thanks to the Mexicans, all this looked set to end.
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