The woman who taught France how to drink - The Independent
[Empress] Josephine was also a celebrated hostess and, although not a great drinker, a great collector of wine. The official inventory of her possessions at her death includes more than 13,000 bottles of wine from all over the world, from the Cape to Hungary to Champagne. Study of her 1814 “wine list” reveals something that may seem unsurprising but was, at that time, extraordinary. Almost half of her bottles and barrels came from vineyards around Bordeaux. Most of them, though little-known in France at that time, would later come to be recognised as among the greatest names in wine: the four “top” Médoc châteaux of Latour, Lafite, Margaux and Haut-Brion.
