Have you seen “The Legend of Shalimar“, a spectacular and beautiful six-minute spot shot on 35mm film on location in India? Rich with luscious imagery, this film includes mysterious landscapes such as elephants laboring across snowy peaks. That immediately made me think of one of the most famous chateaux in Bordeaux, Cos d’Estournel, and more specifically of the “Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe”.
Do you know the “Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe”? Born in 1762 during the reign of Louis XV and died in1853 under Napoleon III, at the remarkable age of 91, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel had one sole passion: Cos d’Estournel. Very rapidly, Cos d’Estournel’s wine exceeded the prices of the most prestigious wines and was exported as far as India. Louis became known as “the Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe”. And to celebrate his distant conquests, he had exotic pagodas erected over his cellar, organized spectacular festivities at Cos and presented the great people of this world with some precious bottles of Cos “Returned from India”.
For perfumes, Shalimar is an iconic oriental fragrance. In fact Shalimar was the world’s first oriental fragrance. It was created by Jack Guerlain in the 1920s who was inspired by the tale of the Indian emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. And the gardens surrounding the mausoleum are known as the “Shalimar Gardens.” For wines, Cos d’Estournel is an iconic oriental chateau. Not only its esoteric sandstone façade adorns one of the most elaborate châteaus in Bordeaux, which includes Indian turrets, oriental pagodas and elaborate carvings. But also its wine – a Cos, as it is affectionately known – has a unique style: silky with a spicy bouquet and an oriental taste. Cos d’Estournel and Shalimar by Guerlain truly share an oriental history. And when I watched “The Legend of Shalimar“, the main door of the chateau – a ‘bulund darwaza’ imported from the sultan of zanzibar’s palace – and the elephant still on the label, immediately came to my mind. And the “Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe”…
