Monday 16 December 2013

Prokofiev recommends Ch. Climens, Haut Barsac



From Anthony Phillips's magisterial translation of the Diaries of Sergey Prokofiev (1924 - 1933):

"The cooking at 'Le Chapon fin,' [restaurant in Bordeaux] in fact turned out to be good but not earth-shattering, although when I asked for a good wine (Chateau Climent, Haut-Barzac - sic, 1915, 25 francs a half bottle) it proved so incredible we had never in our lives drunk anything like it. We did not drink much - half a bottle between two - but were more intoxicated than we had been for a long time."

You might think Climens would have pressed this quote into service in their promotion but composers' endorsements are not highly valued in general. Did you know that Beethoven was a client of Coutts Bank at one point? Admittedly he only used them for Poste Restante purposes but Edna Healey's worthy but pedestrian history of the bank fails to include this important fact and management was uninterested when this unparalleled endorsement was pointed out.

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