This goes for me as for many others, I must admit that a subtle, strange, barely perceptible feeling of disappointment grips my stomach every time I read or learn that the consumption of wine decreases while that of beer increases.
How many times, while walking through the streets with my buggies during my visits to the vineyards of Saint Emilion (my wine tours), have I seen on a bar table a number of large glasses of beer and. ...... very few glasses of wine!
Young people, in particular, prefer a cold, carbonated beer to a good fresh white or a young, slightly fresh Saint-Emilion (yes, I don't give up red wine in summer.....I simply prefer drink it at 13/14 degrees instead of the usual 18 degrees...).
Recent studies and chemical analyzes of ancient amphorae confirm that around 6,000 years ago, wine and beer were produced simultaneously in Europe and Asia, in what is now Georgia and Iran. .
If we move geographically closer to our Saint Emilion, it was only between 58 and 52 BC that Julius Caesar (who else?......) conquered the Gaul and planted the first vineyards in the Bordeaux region.
It was therefore decided to graft the native plant, the "vitis biturica", onto vines planted in the 2nd century BC by the Greeks in the region of Marseille (Massilia).
Through the vicissitudes of the first centuries of our era, since in 97 the emperor Domitius ordered the eradication of vines in Gaul to reduce competition with wines produced in Italy, the wine of Saint-Emilion experienced well vicissitudes and adventures.
Among the many wars that raged on these lands over the centuries, let us recall the English domination which lasted several centuries (the 100 Years' War, which began 116 years earlier, in 1337, ended almost by July 17, 1453), now tell me if beer or sweet drinks have even a fraction of the charm that this white or red drink brings.
Still don't know what to order from the waiter? With this last detail, I will perhaps convince you, by reminding you that I have never heard of a specific God of beer..... while Bacchus, up there, is already smiling at us when' he hears the incomparable little noise that our bottle makes when we uncork it....... what else?
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