Bordeaux

The birth of the Bordeaux vineyard dates back to the first century AD when a tribe of Celtic warriors, the Bituriges Vivisques, who had arrived in Burdigalia a century earlier, decided to create their own vineyard by planting a grape variety that was more resistant to the Atlantic climate, Biturica, the ancestor of Cabernets. No doubt the pax romana was conducive to the creation of this vineyard, the only response to the control of Roman merchants over the supply of wines to the emporium of Burdigalia.

Despite its location as a port city with a natural opening to England and the...