In Search of Bacchus Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism [Paperback]

In Search of Bacchus

CHAPTER ONE
Three Pioneers

Wine fans for centuries have traveled to the birthplaces of their favorite wines in order to enjoy the special pleasure of drinking them where the grapes are grown and the juice fermented. Here are just three—one from the seventeenth century, one from the eighteenth, and one from the nineteenth.

John Locke, the English political philosopher whose ideas had a major impact on the American Revolution, was one of the most influential thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment. Among Locke’s revolutionary ideas were the concepts of “government with the consent of the governed” and “the rights of life, liberty, and property.” The latter found its way into the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Because of political setbacks at home and his problems with a chronic cough probably due to tuberculosis, Locke, a trained doctor, sought out a more temperate climate away from his home in London. In November 1675, he left for France with the intention of traveling as far south as Montpellier, a city with a major medical practice and where the weather would be much warmer. During his three and a half years in France, the philosopher wrote more than fourteen hundred pages of notes on what he saw and experienced.

While living in Montpellier, Locke made several trips to nearby wine regions. He carefully recorded how winemakers went about their craft, the quality of the wine, and the prices. Locke wrote that locals “seldom make red wine without the mixture of some sort of white grapes, else it will be too thick and deep colored.” He also noted that peasants grew several varieties in the same vineyard and described in detail how farmers planted and pruned their vines.