May 28, 2021
Wines from Anjou, a region in the Middle Loire Valley in France, were the absolute favorite of D’Artagnan the Gascon, the so-called 4th musketeer.
Throughout Alexandre Dumas’s saga beginning with “The Three Musketeers” and ending with “The Man in the Iron Mask” the white wines are vaunted and revered, particularly by D'Artagnan.
This episode explores the wines of Anjou, and the wines the 17th century musketeers actually might have been drinking. Then we take a small side trip to discover why, potentially, Alexandre Dumas was specific in naming the regional wines in his works.
*(Post publishing note/update:I may have said there were 5 volumes after "The Three Musketeers," but there are actually 6, including: (2) "Twenty Years After", (3) "Ten Years Later", (4) "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", (5) "Louise de la Vallière", and (6) "The Man in the Iron Mask." This does not include "The Red Sphinx," an 800+ page sequel which picks up nearly 3 weeks after the Three Musketeers (it was never finished, and recently translated to English). It is more about King Louis XIII, Queen Anne of Austria, & Cardinal Richelieu than the musketeers, albeit there's still wine-drinking, mostly Bordeaux.)
Resources from this episode:
Books:
French Wine Scholar Study Manual, 5th Edition, Wine Scholar Guild (2015)
Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition, Robinson, J. and Harding, J. (2015)
Wine Bible, 2nd Edition, MacNeil, K. (2015)
World Atlas of Wine, 7th Edition, Johnson, H., and Robinson, J. (2013)
Websites:
Federation Viticole: Cahier des Charges Anjou 2016 https://federationviticole.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CDC_Anjou_2016.pdf
Loire Valley Wine: Anjou https://loirevalleywine.com/appellation/anjou/
Paris Review: Cooking with Alexandre Dumas, Stivers, V. (2018) https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/03/16/cooking-with-alexandre-dumas/
Podcasts:
Glass in Session®: S2E2: Behind Botrytis - Beautiful Wines from Ugly Grapes https://glassinsession.libsyn.com/s2e2-behind-botrytis-beautiful-wines-from-ugly-grapes
Glass in Session®: S5E1: A Pét-Nat Chit-Chat https://glassinsession.libsyn.com/s5e1-a-pt-nat-chit-chat
Glass in Session® is a registered trademark of Vino With Val, LLC.
Music: “Write Your Story” by Joystock (Jamendo.com cc_Standard License, Jamendo S.A.)