de Myrat - backstory
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 5:06 am
I think the de Myrat served at BWE SF was relatively new/unknown for many of us, and I mentioned that NM had written up a long note on it last fall. I'm taking the liberty sharing that, sans pictures and TN's. I'll likely delete it in a week or so, since I think Neil is single handedly making the the WA worth reading again, at least with his articles. (I wonder if brodway shared one of these with us a decade or so ago, or maybe it was de Malle? don't remember)
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NEAL MARTIN
28th Oct 2016 | The Wine Advocate
Imagine the day when you make the momentous decision to discontinue your vineyard. Not sell it off to another guardian, but rip out every single last vine so that no vestige of viticulture remains. Imagine making that dreaded telephone call. Bulldozers arrive at your behest, belching fumes on the perimeter of the vineyard, waiting your nod to enter. Two centuries of history will be destroyed in a day, ancient vines that looked to you as their protector, smashed and broken under grinding bulldozer tracks, ripped from the ground in a mass of flailing roots, chain-sawed and thrown on a funeral pyre. It might sound melodramatic and yet this is the fate that befell Château de Myrat.
This is the story of how a reputed Barsac property severed its connection to wine. More importantly it is a story about a Damascene resurrection, a second coming that has seen de Myrat inching its way back towards its former glory. It is a story entwined with a family that once occupied an exalted position within Bordeaux five centuries ago, whose association with wine hung on a single thread.
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NEAL MARTIN
28th Oct 2016 | The Wine Advocate
Imagine the day when you make the momentous decision to discontinue your vineyard. Not sell it off to another guardian, but rip out every single last vine so that no vestige of viticulture remains. Imagine making that dreaded telephone call. Bulldozers arrive at your behest, belching fumes on the perimeter of the vineyard, waiting your nod to enter. Two centuries of history will be destroyed in a day, ancient vines that looked to you as their protector, smashed and broken under grinding bulldozer tracks, ripped from the ground in a mass of flailing roots, chain-sawed and thrown on a funeral pyre. It might sound melodramatic and yet this is the fate that befell Château de Myrat.
This is the story of how a reputed Barsac property severed its connection to wine. More importantly it is a story about a Damascene resurrection, a second coming that has seen de Myrat inching its way back towards its former glory. It is a story entwined with a family that once occupied an exalted position within Bordeaux five centuries ago, whose association with wine hung on a single thread.
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