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PygmalionThe story of Pygmalion from Greek mythology can be read in Ovid (Roman poet). "The artist Pygmalion has become a misogynist because of bad experiences with licentious women and lives only for his sculpture. Without consciously thinking about women, he creates an ivory statue that looks like a living woman. He treats the effigy more and more like a real person and finally falls in love with his artificial figure. On the feast day of Venus, Pygmalion pleads with the goddess of love: Although he does not dare to say that his statue may become a human being, he asks that his future wife may be like the statue he has created. When he returns home and begins to caress the statue as usual, it slowly comes to life." (excerpt from Wikipedia)

I love this story, which has been retold and reinterpreted in so many variations by so many poets: from Johann Elisas Schlegel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gottfried Keller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe to the operetta "Die schöne Galathée" by Franz von Suppé. Culture-conscious wine lovers can read all this. But I hardly learned anything about the wine with this name (until today). So I was all the more curious when I recently discovered it in a small wine boutique (in the Languedoc). Is it a cheat pack or an almost "mythological" wine experience?170px-Étienne-Maurice-_Falconet-Pygmalion-&-Galatee_hermitage

The picture on the label clearly indicates that the beautiful Galathée must have been the inspiration for the name. The turn to Greek mythology is not surprising, since the Mediterranean coast was settled by the Greeks as early as in ancient times. So the only question that remains is: Can the wine Pygmalion measure up to the legendary figure who was brought to life by the divine Venus?

The wine, while not divine, is gifted that ancient gods could well be at play. In other words, it is a wine that can be loved (and wants to be loved). It greets the consumer with a warmth and urgency that carries through to the remarkably long finish. It seems to me - though perhaps this is just imagination - that femininity (in the chocolate and coffee notes) measures up to masculine power (pepper, spice), making a juicy full impression at every stage. Here tradition (grape varieties, ageing) meets modern contemporary expression. No put on wood, rather (probably by the age) a wonderful fusion. Venus could well have had a hand in this.

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