Bordeaux Fours, 2024: 1914 – 2004
“A photograph is a memory frozen in time.”
– Edward Steichen (1879 – 1973)
My trip to Bordeaux, which held the promise of many old vintages as well as young barrel samples, was just a few days away. I was sitting at the keyboard, in my study (‘shrine full of empty bottles’ might be another valid description), putting a few finishing touches to my timetable of visits, tastings and dinners, when a sonorous chime announced the arrival of yet another email in my inbox.
Would it be from a proprietor in Bordeaux, confirming or cancelling an appointment? Or some other last-minute change of plans? Of course, there was only one way to find out.
Opening the email, two images were attached. The sender was not from Bordeaux, but much closer to home, and the message was tantalising.
“I think you will find these two old pictures interesting.”
How could I resist?
Clicking to open the first I discovered an old photograph, which I later learned had been liberated from an archive curated by an elderly aunt who had recently passed away. I eagerly drank in the monochrome image before me; within it, 45 men of various ages met my gaze.
This memory frozen in time dates to 1933, and the relative peace of the interbellum. The body of men are the members of a local bowling club, and are posing for a photograph at the edge of the green. While the handsome array of natty fedoras and oversized newsboy caps is captivating enough, I am drawn to this particular window onto the past for another reason; four of the men are related to me; a great grandfather (back row, far left, if you’re interested), a grandfather (back row, eighth from left) and two great uncles (front row, second from left and third row, sixth from left).
I never met any of these men face to face; they all passed away long before I was born, but I share their genes (although, sadly, not their dapper sense of dress).
As I gazed at the image it struck me that old photographs and old wines have something in common; both can, given the opportunity, transport us to another era.
