The Reds and Whites of Bordeaux

When Mademoiselle Vivette showed me the Bordeaux section of her cellar, she began her discussion by saying:“Our Auberge, as does every hotel and inn in France, has to be able to offer, simply for the sake of prestige, a reasonably broad selection of the Grands Crûs—the great château-bottled reds of Bordeaux.” Then, with a slightly satiric smile she added that, at the prices which these old bottles now command, “tout le monde les a, mais personne n’en vend”—everybody has them, but nobody sells them. In fact some restaurants seem to want to discourage their customers from even thinking about buying them. After all, it looks marvelous on a wine list to be able to show a 1937 Château Latour at three hundred dollars for a magnum, but there may be only one bottle left in the cellar and when that bottle goes, the wine list will have to be rewritten!