Bordeaux
wine history
Wine
has been grown in Bordeaux for two thousand
years. Most probably vines grew there before the arrival
of the Roman in 56 before J.C.. The poet Ausonius wrote
about it, a château still bare his name, the "Château
Ausone".
But
unlike most of the other french wine regions, wine
in Bordeaux was developed by merchants. In other parts
of France, wine was under the power of monks.
At
the beginning of the second millennium the Bordeaux
region was under English domination. Hundred of boats
loaded with barrels of "Claret" left for England. The "Claret" was
a light red wine which Englishmen loved, the word is
still used to refer to Red Bordeaux.
By
the 14th century, half of the wine production was boarded
on ships mainly to England.
At
that time, wines from Bergerac and Gaillac, east of
Bordeaux, were very famous and strongly compete against
Bordeaux wines. Nowadays they belong to the South West
wine region.
Therefore
the local winemakers and merchants banned those South
West wines from entering the city of Bordeaux until
their own wines were on board the ships !
People
started to make wine in Medoc (and places such as Margaux,
Saint Estèphe, Saint Julien, Pauillac...) only
from the 17th century. Before that, Medoc was actually
a swamp.
During
the 17th and 18th century, merchants from England,
the Netherlands and Germany controlled most of the
wines produced in the whole Bordeaux region. At that
time, wineries sold their wine in barrel and cask just
after they made them. Merchants bought barrels and
casks, sometimes bottled the wines and matured them.
In
1855, these merchants created a ranking to distinguish
the finest Bordeaux wines. The classification still
exists and is known as Grands
Crus Classés (Great
Growths).
At
the end of the second world war, Baron de Rothschild
was the first wine maker to bottle his wines and mature
them in a cellar, before all wine makers do the same.
During
the last decades, the trend in Bordeaux is to put a
brand name on the bottle with grapes coming from all
over the region and even beyond. Brand names such as
Mouton Cadet and Malesan are increasingly popular.
And
a most obvious trend these days is the high price of
Bordeaux and the speculation around it.
Read more
about Bordeaux wines with Amazon.com:
- Bordeaux:
a comprehensive guide to the wines
produced from 1961 to 1997, by Robert
Jr. Parker
More
pages on Bordeaux :
Bordeaux
wine
About
Bordeaux wine region :
Bordeaux
wine information - Bordeaux
region information - Wine
map - Winemaking
in Bordeaux - Bordeaux
wine history - Classification
of wine - Bordeaux wines
and food - Buy
Bordeaux wines - Bordeaux
main page
Wines
from Bordeaux :
Médoc - Haut
Médoc - Margaux - Saint
Estèphe - Pauillac - Saint
Julien - Listrac - Moulis - Graves - Pessac
Léognan - Sauternes - Barsac - 1ères
Cotes de Bordeaux - Bordeaux
aoc/Bordeaux supérieur - Entre
Deux Mers - Saint
Emilion - Cotes
de Castillon - Cotes
de Francs - Pomerol - Fronsac - Cotes
de Bourg - Wines of Bordeaux
Other
french wine regions :
Alsace - Bourgogne
(Burgundy) - Champagne - Corsica - Côtes
du Rhône - Languedoc-Roussillon - Loire
Valley - Provence - South
West
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