OEnologie - Gastronomie - Bordeaux - First Edition - Lot 190

OEnologie - Gastronomie - Bordeaux - First Edition COCKS (Charles) Bordeaux and its Wines classified by order of merit. A foreigner's guide to Bordeaux and the Gironde. Bordeaux, Féret fils, 1850. 2 parts in one volume in-12: 2f., IV-319pp. illustrated with 4 two-tone plates of views of Bordeaux (one as frontispiece) and a folding map of Bordeaux in fine by JBJ CONSTANT. Spotting on the Bordeaux map, one leaf badly cut before reading (without missing text). Modern burgundy ½ oasis à la Bradel, gilt title on spine. A good, professionally bound copy. Extremely rare first French edition of this classic reference guide to Bordeaux wines. The work comprises 2 main parts. The first deals with the history of Bordeaux and its surroundings, and the second with the wines themselves. In 1846, Michel-Édouard Féret asked Charles Cocks, an Englishman living in Bordeaux, to write a guide to Bordeaux wines, including historical observations and assessments of recent vintages. The result was published in London in 1846 as "Bordeaux: Ses vins et le Pays Claret". This first French edition, published by the Féret firm, is largely a translation of the 1846 title but with the addition of the classification of wines by order of merit. "An excellent manual called the "Bible of Bordeaux", it describes all the classified growths with a monograph for each commune" (Soète); all the classified growths with a monograph for each commune; meticulous and exact classification of the growths of Bordeaux estates. Cagle 140 is the only one to mention this extremely rare edition.