When discussing wine, it’s hard to ignore France. Some of the world’s most famous wine regions—Bordeaux, Alsace, Burgundy, and the Loire Valley—sit there. Soil, geography, and climate shape French wines, as they do grapes destined to become cognac.
While there’s a significant difference in both grapes and production process between cognac and table wine, there’s something really important they share in common. What we’re talking about is how they got to be so popular and well known around the world. How did all this wine production even start in France in the first place? What helped to get the industry where it is today both for wine and Cognac? To figure out that answer we have to look at one of the most dominate ruling powers ever created in this world, the Roman Empire.
Before we dive into the Romans, we should note they didn’t invent vinification. Prehistoric people most likely stumbled upon it by accident. Imagine a hunter-gatherer collecting grapes (or berries, peaches, etc.) in a basket. Some get crushed and jostled, letting the juices leak out. They leave the basket while they go on a hunting expedition. When they return, the grapes have turned fizzy and bubbly, producing a strange liquid that makes you feel a little funny if you drink it. Whoops—they made wine.
Now, that’s a bit simplistic, but it’s essentially the gist of it. There’s no way to really pinpoint the exact moment in time this happened, as this is just a theory. Nor did it then suddenly become known as wine and spread throughout the world. Not quite. However, it’s a very believable scenario that almost absolutely took place. But, since we like more concrete information, in terms of history and known dates, scientists have found traces of wine production in China as early as 7000 BCE. And it’s widely known that the Greeks and Egyptians were already enjoying wine in the 1100’s BCE. But what concerns us is when did it start in France?
For that question, we turn to the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1980s, archaeologists began a dig near Montpellier, France, and uncovered a collapsed merchant shop dating to around 450–550 BCE, with tons of amphora buried under the rubble. At that time, Celts occupied the region, inhabiting large areas of Western Europe during the early first millennia. Researchers took samples from the amphora and analyzed them at the University. They found traces of tartaric acid in the clay—the specific natural acid found in grapes—leading them to conclude that these amphora once held wine.
They based their conclusion not only on the acid but also on the discovery of pine resin, which people may have used as a preservative or flavoring for wine. The Greeks often added rosemary or thyme to their wine to enhance flavor and aroma, so pine resin fits naturally into that tradition. At the dig site, archaeologists also found a large limestone press that could have processed grapes or olives, and it, too, contained traces of tartaric acid. Combine that with the many drinking cups nearby, and it clearly indicates that people produced wine—at least on a small scale—and consumed it.
So, if the Celts seem to be the first people to start producing wine in Gaul (present day France), why are the Roman’s, who came some 200-300 years later to the region, getting the majority of the credit for it? Simply put, while the Celts hashed out the small details for wine production and got the ball down the court, the Roman’s took that ball and slam dunked it. They not only perfected wine making to handle mass production, but they also made wine a highly sought after commodity for trade worldwide.
As we know, the Roman’s were coming out of Italy. There, wine production was already underway most likely in the mid 700’s BCE. And like with any good conqueror, you brought your culture with you as you expanded your reach and introduced your ideas and way of life to the local populations. The Roman Empire had such a huge impact on wine in France because it was already such a significant part of their normal diet, especially within the upper class, and it was a good business. One which made the Empire a lot of money.
When Rome first moved into Gaul, traders noted that one amphora of Roman wine could sell for the same price as a single slave. It’s also worth noting that the Roman Empire didn’t rely solely on brute force like the Persians or Mongols had before them. People in the conquered lands often aspired to become Romans themselves. They saw their farms improve, trade expand, and cities grow. They welcomed many aspects of Roman culture and worked to become citizens of the great Empire—including adopting Roman religious practices, social structures, and lifestyles. And that lifestyle included wine—lots of wine.
Around 50 BCE, the Roman’s, led by Julius Caesar, had completely conquered Gaul. They were experts at agriculture and began planting vineyards, olives, and figs wherever they could. Records indicate they had most likely established vineyards first in Bordeaux as early as the 1st century CE, which then crept up into the Charente valley to present day Cognac during the latter half of the century and spread outward across the country from there. There were even abundant amounts of indigenous vines that the Romans cultivated, and some are even still being used to produce wine today.
Even though Romans valued wine highly, they sometimes went overboard with planting vineyards. In 92 CE, Emperor Domitian decreed that no new vineyards could be planted because they had so much wine in storage that it spoiled before people could drink or sell it. That decree stood until 280 CE, when Emperor Probus overturned it and allowed people to plant vineyards and make wine freely again. This change marked the true beginning of France’s flourishing winemaking industry.
One of the benefits of producing so much wine in Bordeaux and the Charente Valley were their perfect locations. Bordeaux is right on the Gironde river which empties into the Atlantic. Further north in the Charente-Maritime départment, La Rochelle, an important port city in the history of Cognac, is right on the coast. It made them exceptional cities to transport wine via the ocean up to the British Isles and Northwest Germany where the Roman soldiers were continuing to battle and conquer.
Even the Charente river itself was fairly manageable for boats to go further inland and come back out, stocked full of wine and other supplies, to the Atlantic Ocean. It might go without saying, but the famous cities in the Charente Valley like Cognac, Jarnac, Angoulême, and La Rochelle didn’t even exist at this time. Most were just tiny little farm communities. Once the Roman’s came through, however, things began to change drastically. Ports were constructed, supplies to build barracks and churches came in, and the cities grew just as fast as the vineyards spread. This was indeed one of the fastest growing areas within the empire. As Salvatore Calabrese puts it in his book Cognac: A Liquid History:
The temperate climate, its chalky soil, the growers’ affinity with the terroir, and the existence of the river combined to make the Cognac region one of the most important areas for wine production. Wine from the Saintonge and its sister provinces was exported via the river to other regions in France and the Roman Empire. (Calabrese, 2001, p. 37-8)
While the volume of wine produced is completely unknown, there are indications from a few ruins around France that some of these farms were making quite a bit of wine. One such location is in La Haute-Sarrazine in the western region of the Cognac AOC. There are two farm buildings found that have several huge basins dug into the ground and lined with plaster. They’re also connected via pipes and canals indicating that liquid was passed through them from basin to basin.
The standout discovery was a fouloir, a giant holding vessel where workers stomped grapes by foot. Based on the size of the basins and fouloir, researchers estimate that this farm could have produced up to 100,000 gallons of wine per year. Scientists determined that people made wine there from the late 200s CE well into the 300s CE. With other sites scattered along the Atlantic coast and further inland, it’s clear that this region served as the premier wine-growing area of the Roman Empire.
But as we all know, everything comes to an end eventually. When the Roman Empire came crashing down after Germanic raiders pushed into Gaul, all the way to Spain, Europe entered into an era of violence and social discord. From around 250-1500 CE, Gaul changed rulers more times than you can count. This portion of history gets muddy with battle after battle and invasions constantly happening. The Vandals, Visigoths, Franks, Merovingians, Vikings, you name it. They all held power at some point.
Despite all this, the wine industry survived thanks to an important social structure created by the Romans: the Roman Catholic Church. Wine played a crucial role in Mass, as participants drank the blood of Christ during the service. The Church took over grape growing, vineyard planting, and farming technology, carefully guarding these practices. Although production dropped dramatically and demand declined, monks continued making wine throughout the Dark Ages. Wine didn’t truly regain its popularity until the Renaissance.
We can see the influence the Roman’s had on French wine production. And while Cognac does start out as wine, that’s not the end goal. So how do we tie together what the Roman’s built and the Cognac we have today? Well, I think it really all comes down to trade routes. The road systems that began to be put in place by the Roman’s to march their armies between all the key cities from Bordeaux in the south, Paris and Champagne in the north, and Burgundy in the east laid a foundation that would last for thousands of years.
These roads were crucial in trade throughout Europe. And to add to that, the port cities had their routes across the seas to London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Oslo. All of this was because of the Roman’s. And once the wine of Cognac started being distilled and grew into its own industry, it was these same trade routes that they began to use to ship and sell their eau-de-vie worldwide making it the global brand it is today. Hail Caesar!
