-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email On July 31, 1395, the Duke of Burgundy declared a war of annihilation on an "evil and disloyal" enemy and invader: a purple, acidic grape known as "Gamay." According to the ordinance issued by Philip the Bold, Gamay not only threatened the livelihoods of honest vignerons who used higher-quality grapes, but also ruined Burgundy's reputation for fine Pinot Noir wines with its bitter taste and apparently harmful effects on public health. In order to safeguard the esteemed Pinot Noir and the well-being of Philip's people, the ordinance declared, all Gamay vines were to be cut down within a month and completely uprooted by the following Easter: "ripped out, eradicated, destroyed, reduced to nought .
.. forever.
" If the language of the edict seemed needlessly vindictive, perhaps it was because this war was personal to Philip, a keen economic steward who had worked assiduously to develop Burgundian wine production. As a younger son to King John II of France, Philip had received Burgundy as a compensation prize while his elder brother Charles V succeeded to the throne. With royal authority now disintegrating under the latter's mentally unstable son Charles VI, the ambitious Philip sought not only to rule his appanage as an effectively independent duke, but also to outshine all other fiefdoms in power, riches, and magnificence.
In this competition, Philip understood that wine, with the trade revenue and prestige it brought to him and his duchy, w.