Ep 2341 Understanding Les Grands Crus Classés En 1855 with Philippe Casteja | On the Road with Stevie Kim

World is embracing more in general white wines. And bordeaux, from what I understand, is nearly ninety percent red wines. Do you think this will change within the next few years at all, or Bordeaux will be Bordeaux forever? Well, in French, we say red has Bordeaux, but in English, it's burgundy red. But I think, when I was a child, Bordeaux was producing a lot of white wines. And it was When was that? That was, let's say, in the sixteenth. Yeah. A hundred years. Oh, no. Over a hundred years. Welcome to another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Campbell. Each week, Stevie travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods as well as the incredible travel destinations. Hello. My name's Stevie Kim, and welcome to the Italian wine podcast on the road edition. It's not Italian wine. It's Bordeaux. It's going to be all about the bordeaux this week. And I'm here sitting next to me, mister Philippe Casta Je. Did I ever get that correctly? Castasia. Oh, Castasia. You know? It sounds different. It's actually French. From what he tells me. And he is the president of Grenco Classe eighteen fifty five. Hello. Hello. How are you, Steve? It's good to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. In the middle of the classified growth that we are going to speak about. Excellent. So you are the president of the, but what is actually the difference between, and Grand kou class a, eighteen fifty five? Okay. The eighteen fifty five, this is the body of, the this is the organization of the classified growth of the eighteen fifty five classified growth. You must remember this classification has been created one hundred and seventy years ago. Eighteen fifty five. Eighteen fifty five. Under the rule of Napli III, who wanted to have the best French products presented for the World Exhibition of Paris. So he asked the major areas of France, Champagne, burgundy, and Bordeaux to send their best wines ever be, but they did so. But the border people, they decided not to send the wise like this. They decided to organize the classification of the wise they were presenting. This is very important because you must remember we are middle of the nineteenth century. And can you imagine people creating a classification of wines when there was no tap water, when there was no train no roads as we know, no cars. So this is very, very modern. I will Napoleon, he was a genius. He was a small. Yeah. This is the this is the nephew. This is the nephew. Okay. Well, it runs in the genes, it seems. But what about the, and the union, the union is a special body that was created for the promotion and tastings of these wines in France and around the world. And this is not one area, one type of wine. It's the major wines of, all wine, brained areas of bordeaux that is to Pammar, Pasecelle union, Medox, Artimilian, and so on, and so turn. By a position, the eighteen fifty five test flight growth. Mhmm. They are the Medock area. Plus, and the certain area. This is the only areas that were classified. Okay. So can you repeat that, my dog, satan, and with the exception of obrien. Is that correct? Okay. Because obrienne is in the grave area, but it was the only one that was classified together with the eighteen fifty five classification. So why is eighteen fifty five so important besides the fact that, yes, it has classified the rules of who's important quote unquote. Right? Yeah. It's a quality system. In fact, it's very interesting to see that this classification, which is hundred seventy years old, has almost never changed. And these wines have always been the reference for all wine areas that, wanted to show that they are producing good wines. And let's say you're from Italy Italy is trying to create a classification in Tuscany to of the of their best wines. Yeah. This means that the idea of this classification today are modern. Also, if you take new markets, For example, if we speak of China, China, when the Chinese population started to drink wine, they needed some references. Of course, they wanted to have bottle wine, and they knew that, deng xiaoping was drinking bottle wines. And, when they are drinking wines for them, the reference is the eighteen fifty five classification. So now fast forward to today. I mean, Bordeaux wines are facing some challenging times. Right? Well, like gold wines in general. So you've been the president forever. From what I understand. Right? Twenty four years. Yeah. Right? I don't know how long you're planning to be the president for, but so you've seen a lot of things happen. Right? In these twenty four years for Bordeaux and Grand Group class. But even for a grand cru classic, the top, the creme de la creme, as you you guys would say it, it is facing challenging time. So I know you're not nostradamus. Okay? But what is your vision? What do you think is going to happen? Well, I think there are numerous challenges, and this is what makes also the things good and interesting because if everything was set, if there was no competition, there would be no fun. Mhmm. So we have different challenges. One of them is the change of climate, warmer, more water. The second one, which is quite important and which is a world world challenge. It's the change in the habits of drinking wine. Countries like, France, Italy, and Spain, which were which are wine producing countries and, cutlery in their culture, wine countries. The consumer nowadays has changed. He doesn't drink wine every day. He is changing from one area to the other. He stays, he has an evolution. He watches, post gas and, all sorts of, information. So yes. And this means the market has changed. So we must first adapt our wines to the new climate. We have to adapt our wines to the new consumers, to the young people who are drinking different. We have to, distribute our product in different ways. We have to make it available through the new channels, e channels, and so on, and all that is rainwater. So now in terms of how many wineries are part of the eighteen fifty five system. Eighty five. Let's say, sixty one for reds and twenty four for whites, sweet whites. Okay. First time. So now, you know, world is embracing more in general white wines. Right, fresher wines, lighter wines. And Bordeaux, from what I understand, is nearly ninety percent red wines. Do you think this will change within the next few years at all, or Bordeaux will be Bordeaux forever? Well, in French, we say red as Bordeaux, but in English it's burgundy red. But I think, when I was a child, Bordeaux was producing a lot of white twines. And it was When was that? That was, let's say, in the sixties. Yeah. A hundred years. Oh, no. Over a hundred years. Thank you very much. You know those kids are terrible. Let's say, oh, but you're not that young anyway. You're fishing for compliments. Okay. No. There was a lot of white wines, and the trend has been changing to red wines. We are producing white wines, dry whites, sauvignon based mostly white wines, and sauvignon and sauvignon whites. But of course, the red wines are important because bottle reds have a capacity of aging. And this is very important for the people when they start to drink and to collect high ranking wines. So I have a million dollar question for you. So you said the consumers, especially the next generation, they're not customarily drinking wines as much as they used to. Right? Do you have any answers to that? How do we broach the next generation? Well, First of all, you know, what I meant by the different ways of consuming wines. Mhmm. In the old days here, and, Italy and Spain too, wine was the drink that is to say water was not very good. And everybody was putting wine in the water to be sure that the water would be okay. And the workers in the fields were drinking cut water with wine. Today, wine is consumed as a pleasure drink. That is to say the consumer has to have a story. It has to have a taste. It has to understand it. It's a different approach. And we have to explain to the consumer what he's enjoying. So, b, I think we're going to wrap this up, but before we go, is there anything you would like to tell our audience about eighteen fifty five? I think, eighteen fifty five, as I said, is the world scale of wine. We are producing Charlie Good wines in reds from Santestep, Pojag, San Julia, Margot, and, also in Pecylonia, So you have all type of wines. They're a majority based on Cabenio. It is the country. The Midac is the country of birth of Cabenio. This is where everybody has been coming to get the idea. In the whites, the semillon and sauvignon to make those superb sweet wines. Which are balanced with an excellent acidity and which makes them also very fresh. So this is certainly an area which is worth visiting, visiting by traveling, but also visiting by opening and tasting. Okay. So come to Bordeaux as much as you can. I think that is the answer. And I'm signing off from Bordeaux And we are with the president of KankhouClasse eighteen fifty five, Philip Casteja. Well, well done. Okay. Thank you for joining us on another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content on the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can check out our YouTube channel, Mama jumbo shrimp, to watch these interviews, and the footage captured at each location. Changing.