Rebel Empress
Remember Rebel Without a Cause, that 1955 film starring James Dean? This isn't about him. It's about a rebel with many causes.
Her name was Eugénie de Montijo. She was the last Empress of France, the wife of Napoléon III, an iron-willed woman who didn't take prisoners and was far ahead of her time. She fought against sex discrimination, battled government ministers who complained women had no business running the country, won for French women the right to earn degrees, hold jobs reserved for men and – believe it or not – even wear long pants. Yes, women during France's Second Empire were forbidden to wear such clothes.
Petie is writing a book about Eugénie. It's a story of high-drama for Eugénie was almost hauled to the guillotine before fleeing into exile in Great Britain in 1870. The book, Rebel Empress, is being published by HarperCollins and will be out in about a year.
By now, you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with wine. As it turns out, the Empress had a wine cellar, a very impressive one. As part of Petie's research, we traveled to Eugénie's home in Farnborough where she lived until her death in 1920. The home, a magnificent estate adorned by paintings, sculptures and other treasures from Eugénie's life, was taken over by the Bonaparte family and later turned into a school for girls.
It was only by accident that we stumbled onto the wine cellar but one of Petie's contacts who knew of our interest in wine tipped us off. "You might want to check it out," he said, so we did.
Alas, the wine was gone, auctioned off in 1927 after the Empress's death. All that was left were empty wine racks draped with cobwebs and gathering dust. We did, however, see the auction catalogue which gave us a glimpse of what was once there. Choice old Vintage Wines (some from Royal Cellars) the catalogue said. Under Clarets was listed Beaucailloux, Château Deyreux-Valentin, Margaux, Latour-Carnet, Lagrange, Margaux (old), Margaux 1st quality, Margaux 2nd quality, Bordeaux Ordinaire. The only white wines were Tokayer (given by the late Austrian Emperor) and some bottles of Y'quem. The only champagne was Moët (both sweet and dry).
On the Burgundy side was Old Pommard, Corton, Volnay. There was also wine from Madeira and one described as Napoléon Madeira which the catalogue noted "came directly from the Tuileries Palace" where the Emperor and Empress lived before the country's catastrophic defeat in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.
There was also a lot of old cognac, port, whiskey and liqueurs along with one from South Africa, Constantine du Cap, where the royal couple's son was killed while fighting for the British in the Boer War.
What surprised us as we went through the catalogue was the total absence of vintage dates. Nevertheless, if any of the wines should ever surface, I'd happily pop for a bottle or, at the very least, agree to taste it.
