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LAST INTERMEZZO #6

any better a time for change than any other?? any longer. They decide for themselves what
Rubbish! to do and when. This greater freedom results
Finally, what is most valuable in the wine in greater diversity in bouquet and flavour. As
making craft (art). Wine making is farming. to what we must NOT change, and which must
Good wine making is good farming, but great persist, Philippe Dhalluin of Château Mouton
wine making is ART. There are very few great Rothschild said to me, “we must be careful not
musicians, sculptors, or painters and corre- to overdo it. If every berry that goes into the fer-
spondingly few great winemakers. They are menting vat is totally identical, we risk losing
the ones that have brought art to wine and en- complexity and finesse. Bordeaux is famous
riched its culture. With better education, there for finesse, elegance, delicacy and purity. It can
are more and more people in the world who never win the battle for power and strength, so
have culture and thus more and more people do not try. These attributes must persist and ne-
who appreciate the finer things of life, which ver change.“
include wine and food. The late Paul Pontallier When I am 84, on 6th April 2021, I will
said to me, “the greatest advances in the last 20 open my last bottle of Château Palmer 1961.
years have been preciseness, suppleness and pu- I do not think that Château Palmer has made
rity”. Another radical change for the better is a better wine since. It will be 60 years old this
the abandonment of dogma. Fewer and fewer year. Would it have been any better for a touch
winemakers make their wine by the rulebook of Arinarnoa? Somehow, I doubt it! ƅ

Most members of the work team of this book at our
wedding and John as the best man.

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