Friday, September 28, 2007

Château de Caladroy




The Languedoc–Roussillon region of France runs along the Mediterranean coast, from the Pyrénées along the southern border with Spain, to the Rhône and neighboring Provence in the east. The area is blanketed with some 170,000 hectares of vineyards and produces nearly a third of the country's grapes. It is a region that has been producing wines - some of France's best wines - since vines were first planted in the 5th century B.C.


Near the town of Perpignan, in the arid hills of the southernmost part of Roussillon, lies Château de Caladroy, once a 12th-century fortress on the kingdom of Majorca's frontier and, for roughly a hundred years now, a small and relatively unknown winery. The château, begun in the late-19th century and built within the fortress walls, functioned as a tiny, self-contained city, with separate living quarters for estate workers, stables, a school and a chapel.













In about 1920, Château de Caladroy began bottling its own wines, but a devastating fire in 1923 essentially halted all production, delaying success by decades. The structures have long since been restored to working condition, but only recently have they been given a more worthy renovation, thanks to owner Michel Mezerette and estate manager Serge Maurin. Today the site serves as a unique example of a layering of medieval-through-modern architecture, constructed as needed in order to remain operable for nearly a thousand years.



Prior to the fire, the château extended along the hilltop above the olive orchard. In the distance is one of the 12th-century towers of the original fortress.



The château, nearing completion, 1902



The fall harvest, 1903











With its prime location on the Fenouillèdes hills, nearly 1,000 feet above the Mediterranean, Château de Caladroy's vineyards are continually buffeted by the warm Tramontane winds that sweep down from the mountains. The resulting wines have consistently earned high marks for their intense fruit flavors and subtle, herbal nuances. This January, Wine Spectator wrote of the 2004 Côtes du Roussillon-Villages Cuvée Saint Michel, "Ripe, rich and concentrated, with lovely raspberry, dark plum and cassis flavors. Fine-grained tannins, with luscious spice notes. Balanced and structured with a lilting finish of granache and thyme. - 88 points" Not bad for a vineyard whose wines run about $12 a bottle.


Today the vineyards have been extensively replanted, primarily with Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre grapes, but with yields of only about 25hl/ha, they remain far below the allowed 45hl/he. In 2001 the cellar was completely renovated, enabling vintner Jean-Philippe Agen (one of a recent influx of young winemakers to the region's estates) to make some terrific wines -- from Les Schistes to the Syrah-based La Juliane, to Le Saint Michel, a Mourvèdre-based cuvée. To round out the estates overall production, they also sell olive oils and jams made from (you guessed it) grapes.






But of all the treasures and surprises at Château de Caladroy, the chapel, which survived the 1923 fire, is by far the most charming. Built at the end of the 19th century, it is a quirky, if not awkward, composition of popular styles: Its Romanesque Revival exterior features low, heavy brick arches and double windows; the marble balustrade and altar are carved in a Renaissance Revival style and the wood paneling in the apse is Gothic Revival. The most modern flourish was the decoration of the stained glass windows, done in stile floreale, Italy's answer to Art Nouveau.












At Château de Caladroy, visitors will find lessons not only in vinification, but the Mediterranean climate and geography, and thousands of years of history, architecture and design. What they'll also find is a lesson in survival and the spirit of endurance, which has reigned so long at this tiny, frontier vineyard.


Château de Caladroy
66720 Belesta de la Frontiere
www.caladroy.com

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

A Queen's Belongings

Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles:
Contents of the Queen’s Private Retreat on Display
at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco
November 17, 2007–February 17, 2008



Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) Marie-Antoinette "a la rose," 1783. Oil on canvas. chateau de Versailles



Mysteries, myths and legends surround Marie-Antoinette. The stories of her extravagances and excesses, many of them half-truths or exaggerations, ultimately unseated the French monarchy, imprisoned the royal family for years and finally sent them to the guillotine. An exclusive exhibition at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor uses the contents of the Petit Trianon, Marie-Antoinette’s private residence, to look behind the 200-year-old myths and discover concrete evidence of the personal preferences of Marie-Antoinette and how they led to the creation of some of the finest decorative arts of the 18th century. This is the first time the contents of the Petit Trianon have been shown together in an exhibition outside of France. The Petit Trianon is being restored and remodeled, allowing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an American museum to stage this kind of an exhibition.




Entrance front of the Chateau de Petit Trianon



The Petit Trianon is a small château on the grounds of Versailles that served as the queen’s private retreat. Here, the queen could relax in her own home, far away from the constraints of her regimented life. At the Petit Trianon she could choose objects and decorations that reflected her personal style, rather than opting for the taste imposed by the social demands and traditions of the royal court at Versailles.



The Interior of the Petite Trianon

The interior of the château reflects the personal taste of the queen with its reoccurring floral motifs in furniture, fabric and porcelain. Marie-Antoinette was often connected with the love of flowers, and she chose the images of roses (symbols of her Austrian Hapsburg family), pansies (representing royalty), and cornflowers (her favorite flower at the Petit Trianon) to decorate the royal dinner service at the château.




Chair from the Belvedere Pavilion, 1782, Francois Foliot II (1748–after 1808), carved and gilded beech, modern upholstery, musée du château de Versailles



Plate from the “Pearl and Cornflower” Service made for Marie Antoinette, 1781 Royal Porcelain Manufactory, Sevres, porcelain, musee du chateau de Versailles



Her private study, with its famous mirrored shutters designed to keep out prying eyes, was lined with delicately carved and painted paneling showing white trophies hanging from ribbons on a pale blue background. “These panels are the essence of the style associated with Marie-Antoinette: restrained in form, yet rich in detail, and executed with consummate craftsmanship,” says Martin Chapman, Fine Arts Museums Curator of European Decorative Arts and of the exhibition.



The Cabinet of Moving Mirrors, Petit Trianon



Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom was called the “Trellis Bedroom,” named for the distinctive design of the furniture, some of the most original ever conceived. Bonnefoy du Plan oversaw the creation of the pieces featuring painstakingly painted or carved trellis and basketwork, floral forms and rustic garlands. The furniture is called “wheat-ear” furniture, named for chairs decorated with lily-of-the-valley, pinecones, and ears of wheat. A mahogany table made by Schwerdfeger is adorned with a frieze of sunflowers and thistle leaves. Dogs’ heads, representing the Queen’s pets, add a charming detail.



Armchair from the “Wheatear suite” from the queen’s bedroom, Petit Trianon, 1787, Georges Jacob, chairmaker, carved and painted walnut, Desfarges, Lyons, textile manufacturer, linen embroidered on cotton, musée du château de Versailles



Dressing Table made for Marie Antoinette at the Tuileries Palace, 1784, Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), marquetry of satinwood and kingwood, gilt bronze, musée du château de Versailles



Bed from the King’s Bedroom, Petit Trianon, 1775-1785, giltwood and modern silk lampas, musee du chateau de Versailles



As elaborate as these objects seem, these designs were of the more modest scale and simplicity befitting a country house and, for the most part, not as grand as the highly gilded furniture and objects created for public, royal palaces. There are notable exceptions, including the famous Trianon lantern. Lanterns were important in the main rooms of the Petit Trianon because they kept the candles from extinguishing when windows were opened in the summer months. This grand lantern is decorated with paste diamonds and is exquisitely finished in the minutest detail with Cupid’s symbols of love: arrows, bows and a quiver.



The salon de companie at the Petit Trianon






The Gardens of the Petit Trianon



Carle Vanloo (1705–1765), Madame de Pompadour as a gardener, oil on canvas, musée du château de Versailles



Marie-Antoinette’s husband, King Louis XVI, gave the Petit Trianon to her in 1774. Shortly after, she began an extensive refurnishing and landscaping project to tailor the existing building and the grounds to her taste. The royal architect Richard Mique (1728–1794) led the effort to transform the landscape and build structures to create gardens dedicated to pleasure. The botanical gardens became fashionable, English-style gardens full of winding paths, hillocks and streams imitating a natural landscape.



View of the Chateau de Petit Trianon from the French Garden



The French Pavilion in the Gardens of the Petit Trianon



The decorative buildings included a chinoiserie merry-go-round, the classical Temple of Love, and an elegant jewel-box of a theater where the queen participated in amateur plays. The ultimate garden structure was Hameau, a model village of Normandy farmhouses and thatched cottages built around a man-made lake. The landscape artist Hubert Robert assisted in the creation of Hameau, ensuring its picturesque composition with its cottages’ artfully dilapidated rustic exteriors. Although pains were taken outside to maintain an air of cultivated rusticity, the queen’s private rooms at Hameau were luxurious. A pair of beautifully designed firedogs in the form of goats eating grapes reveals the high standards of design and attention to finish and detail that became hallmarks of the queen’s style. In the exhibition, paintings and drawings bring the long-lost gardens to life.



The Belvedere and Rock in the English gardens at the Petit Trianon, Photo ©Christian Milet


The Mill at the Hameau in the gardens of the Petit Trianon


The Marlborough Tower at the Hameau in the gardens of the Petit Trianon



The details add up to a picture of one woman’s taste and how its secrecy and expense became a political issue. No matter what a visitor thinks about the Queen’s spending and lifestyle, few would disagree that her personal taste was responsible for objects of great beauty.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Établissement Public du Musée et du Domaine National de Versailles and supported in part by Dr. Kathy Nicholson Hull and Mr. Bill Gisvold.


www.legionofhonor.org

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

By the Light of the Crescent City Moon



Following on the heals of their highly successful New Orleans toile (shown below), former Broadway actors and now Big Easy retailers Bryan Batt and Tom Cianfichian have created Pontchartrain Beach, a line of fabric and housewares. The pattern, not unlike the New Orleans toile, celebrates the iconic symbols of the city with fleur-de-lys, gold crowns, the cornstalk fence, magnolias- and even crawdads! - all in a Mardi Gras color palate. A percentage of all Pontchartrain Beach sales goes directly to the Children's Hospital of New Orleans, and specifically its Music/Recreation and Child Life Department and Caps for Kids programs.





Thew award-winning New Orleans toile, designed by New York artist Sonia O'Mara based on sketches by Batt. Landmarks celebrated in the pattern include St. Louis Cathedral, the St. Charles street car, scenes from the historic Vieux Carré and the steamboat Natchez. Available in five aptly-named colorways (magnolia, café au lait, claret, delphine and palmetto), it can be bought by the yard, or sewn into any number of items, from tea towels to shower curtains.



Hazelnut New Orleans
Fine Gifts
Elegant Home Accessories
5515 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-2424
www.hazelnutneworleans.com



PS: Kelly Wearstler, I see your white greyhound and raise you one elephant. (31" tusk to tail, 27" tall; $700.00)