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Pirates of the Caribbean - Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Bordeaux!

You would think that a Pirate's favourite drink would have to be his

rum but Johnny De pp's top tipple is wine, Bordeaux to be precise.

Having taken the children to see Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's

Chest recently I was amused to learn that the actor is an avid wine

enthusiast. The film, starring Johnny Depp - who plays the drunken

Captain Jack Sparrow, was excellent. Loads of swash buckling and

special effects!

Decanter Magazine has reported that Depp had revealed his preferred

wines in an interview with Madame Figaro Magazine. Chateau

Calon-S�gur, a Saint Est�phe third growth is his favourite. He said:

"It's a marvellous wine that you can drink everyday and it is also

very affordable."

Considering that Depp earned �10 million for his film Charlie and The

Chocolate Factory his tastes can reach the more expensive end of the

fine wine spectrum. He is also wealthy enough to have bought his own

Caribbean Island. Depp mentions his penchant for the upper end of the

market:

"I like Petrus and Chateau Cheval-Blanc."

He also named Domaine de Roman�e-Conti as one of his favourite

Burgundy estates.

Depp lives with the pop singer Vanessa Paradis and spends 6 months a

year in his home in Plan de la Tour in the South of France. He is well

known for his love of French wines and the French lifestyle. He even

has a tattoo on his arm saying "Wino Forever". Quite appropriate for

his character Captain Ja ck as he spends most of his time in a gently

bemused alcoholic haze. He is also the co-owner of Mandala Ray a

restaurant in Paris, along with Sean Penn, John Malkovich and Mick

Hucknall. The menu is French/Asian and the d�cor is that of a Buddhist

Temple. I wonder if he stocks any of his favourite wines there?

Chateau Calon-S�gur is the wine with a heart on its label as former

owner Marquis de S�gur, though he owned such estates as Lafitte and

Latour declared "my heart belongs to Calon". The Chateau lies 1km from

Gironde and is the most northern of all classified growths of the

Medoc. It is north wes t of the village of Saint Est�phe. Jancis

Robinson described its widowed owner, Madame Gasqueton as

"grandmotherly in appearance" but she has also been called the Miss

Marple of Bordeaux as her knowledge and expertise are legendary.

I was lucky enough to meet Madame Gasqueton on a recent tasting

expedition. She certainly is a formidable lady and her wine is

excellent. I wonder how Captain Jack would fare under her command. I

think he might find himself stripped of his rank to Cabin Boy and be

put to scrubbing the decks for insubordination!

Petrus was previously owned by another pioneering lady, Madame Loubat,

but is run by Christian Moueix now. The name derives from the Latin

for "Peter" and was once known as Petrus Arnaud after the family who

owned the land in the 19th century. The Merlot and Cabernet Franc

vines here are ancient; some are as old as 80 years. They were not

uprooted after the devastating frosts of 1956 but were re-grafted onto

the existing root. It took a decade for them to recover but these

vines are still producing today. This wine is known as one of

Bordeaux's most intensely concentrated, richly flavoured and unique

red wines.

Cheval-Blanc lies north west of Saint Emillion on the edge of the

Pomerol appellation. It was founded in 1832 by Albert Fourcaud-Laussac

and is regarded as one of the top Bordeaux chateaux. It fell prey to

LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group, run by Albert Fr�re and

Bernard Arnault in 1998. They installed Pierre Lurton to run it. The

soil is a mosaic of sand, gravel and clay which is unique in that it

allows the Chateau to grow a mixture of Merlot (which loves clay) and

Cabernet Franc which prefers gravel and sand. The vineyard is organic

as possible and weeds grow between the vines as herbicides are banned.

So, a boy from Kentucky becomes an uber rich actor with a gold toothed

pirate as an alter ego. Who would have thought that he was also a self

confessed Francophile with great taste in wine?

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