Wine Book : Chateaux of the Medoc by Ken Kincaid

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Found this great book at the Harris bookstore of Great World City, I was a bit surprised that the price was reasonable at S$18. It gives as short, straight to the point description of the individual chateau and their history, with nice photos of the cellars, vineyards and estates. The only gripe I have is that they are mostly black and white. The book covers the appellations of Haut-Medoc, Margaux, Moulis, Saint Julien, Pauillac and Saint Estephe.

I particularly like the write-up on Mouton-Rothschild, and their bid to be included into the patheon of classifed first growth wines established in 1855. They adopted the motto, "Premier ne suis, second ne daigne, Mouton suis" which is translated as "First I cannot be, second I will not be, Mouton I am."

When they finally got elevated to first growth status in 1973, the motto changed to "Premier je suis, second je fus, Mouton ne change", which becomes, "First I am, second I was, Mouton doesn't change."