Armailhacq, Albert D'
La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc
1855, Bordeaux, P. Chaumas
Third Edition
Published in Bordeaux in 1855, this third and most complete edition follows the initial issue of 1844 and its revision of 1852. On the title page D’Armailhacq is defined as "ancien magistrat, propriétaire en Médoc", and corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux. Appearing in the very year of the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, the work offers a near-contemporary account of Médoc viticulture and reputation, arranged commune by commune and grounded in proprietary observation. The appendix on oidium refers to Berkeley’s identification of 1847 and traces the subsequent diffusion of the disease into the Médoc. The ampelographic sections preserve early local nomenclature, notably cabernelle ou carmenère. The author’s own estate, then Mouton d’Armailhacq, is recorded within the survey tables.
Five parts cover vine physiology, Médoc grape varieties, soils, annual cultivation, vineyard maintenance, harvest and vinification, illustrated by 4 tables out of pagination. Particularly interesting is the illustrated section on ploughing include the Araire Gabat, Araire Courbe, and Courbe a Gorronter. Financial tables record vineyard renewal and fertilisation costs in the canton of Pauillac. The final gazetteer surveys communes in the arrondissements of Lesparre and Bordeaux, listing proprietors, vineyard area, production, and ranking categories from premiers crus to proprietors selling at peasant prices. An appendix on oidium describes symptoms, sources, and the disease's spread across Europe into the Medoc.
A Médoc time capsule from the very year of the 1855 Classification: terroir, tools, costs, oidium panic, and even Carmenère under its old local name. Pure claret obsession.
Pp. [1] f.e., [4], XIII, 556 (misnumbered 656), [1] r.e., 4 tables out of pagination
Contemporary half leather, spine with four raised bands, title on a red leather label, gilt decoration; marbled boards. Margins slightly rubbed; upper hinge showing signs of opening but sound; upper portion of the spine rubbed. Binding restored at the internal upper edge. Overall, a sound copy in good condition.
Dimensions (inches): 9 x 5 3/4 x 1 1/4
A. d'Armailhacq was a 19th-century Medoc proprietor, former magistrate, and Bordeaux academy correspondent.
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