At the beginning of the Roman Empire, South of France (the east and west cost) used to be called “Provincia”, but changed to be named “Gallia Narbonensis” when the Romans founded the town of Narbonne which turned out to be a major trading competitor with Massilia.
The early Greeks settlers understood that the vine grew best in the same climate and area where olives' tree were cultivated, therefore most of the vineyards were planted in the warm Mediterranean coastal area. In the 7th Century BC, the Greek geographer Strabo, noted that the areas around Massilia and Narbo could produce the same fruits than Italy but the rest of the Gaul couldn't.
It was in the late 1st Century BC and early 1st Century AD, that viticulture started to spread to others areas of Gaul.
It wasn't until the 1st Century AD that Gaulle’s wine had been recorded to be renown. As Pliny the Elder noted that in a region called Vienna (Rhone Valley), The Allobogres* produced a resinated wine, good quality and pretty expensive..
*Allobroges: The first recorded reference to the Allobroges is from the Greek historian Polysuis in 150-130 BC. He tells how they unsuccessfully resisted hannibalwhen he crossed the Alps in 218 BC. In 123 BC, the Allobroges gave shelter to king Tutomotulus (or Teutomalius), of the Salluviiribe and Romehad conquered and refused to hand him over. Rome declared war and moved against them. On August 8, 121 BC legions of Quintus Fabius Maximus defeated them and forced them to submit; Maximus earned a moniker “Allobrogicus” for this feat.
During the reign of Gaius Julius Ceasar Augustus considered to be the 1st Emperor of the Roman Empire. They were producing some amphorae in Béziers, in the Narbonensis Gaul and in the Gaillac aswell. In both of those areas, they found the presence of the Queraux Ilex more known as Holm oak. The Holm Oak was used as benchmark to see if the climate was warm enough to ensure a reliable harvest
The vineyard's expansion continued into the 3rd Century AD pushing the borders of viticulture beyond the area of Holm Oak to places like:
Gallia Aquitania in Bordeaux and Burgundy, where it is wetter, with cool summer. It could be a risk of an occasional last harvest, however the demand for wine by the Romans and natives of Gaul was continuing.
By the 6th Century AD, vines were planted throughout Gaul such as Loire Valley, Paris, Champagne .
There is not a precise date for the decline of the Roman Empire, which brought changes to the Gaul, as some regions were invaded by Germanic tribes such as:Visigoths, Burgundians, Franks. Who didn't have any knowledge about viticulture and wine.
By the time Charlemagne finished the founding of his kingdom, in the late 8th Century AD, the power in France was polarised between North and South. The wines in the south were easy to cultivate and were abundant, compared to the North which had more difficulty, following that, wines were a luxury.
A new system of land development emerged intimately tied with spread of viticulture, called complant* . Under this system, many areas in France were enthusiastically and efficiently planted with a little cost from the fiefs to their lord such as for example Loire Valley with the “Quart de Chaume” which derives its name from the use of this practice in the 15th Century.
Quart de Chaume
(exchange for a forth) (large portion uncultivated)
*complant:The land owner gives half of his land to farmers, whom have to cultivate it all. And after the land owner take half of the production for himself and leave the rest to the farmers in exchange of a tithing payed every year.
During the Middle Age (5th till 15th Century), the transport of heavy wooden barrel, done by boat, was costly and risky. The region close to navigable rivers such as the Loire and the Garonne, helped the trade between Bordeaux, Loire valley and England and made the wines very popular, while Burgundy, a region locked had a harder time to develop the trade market.
Bordeaux and England had a long and fruitful relationship, when Eleanor d'Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenêt (futur Henry II of England) get married.
After the Auld Alliance (1295-1560), between France and Scotland against England, the Scottish had an easier access on French that they used to have. On the other side, Burgundian wine didn't have the trade with England or Scotland yet, had been introduced to Netherlands and Flanders by the Duchy of Burgundy Philip the Good
1305 was an important date, the election of Pope Clement V, who was a native of Bordeaux and owned the vineyard estate Château Pâpe Clement.
Followed by his decision to leave the Papacy from Rome for Avignon.
So the wines of Burgundy and Rhone Valley began to be popular because they were the pope's favorites. Following the circumstances, the importance of Burgundy wines became bigger because the Valois Dukes of Burgundy(Charles I The Bold) took a big interest of it and decided to give more power and status to the region. The Duchy became one of the most powerful region in France with its own capital Lyon.
The Bordeaux-English trade started again to have a period of prosperity around the 14th Century as the Gascony came back under French control in 1453, it followed by the expulsion of the English trade, but the Dutch wine trade took a huge importance, they were enthusiastic buying wines for trade with the Hanseatic states.
During the 16th and 17th Century, the Dutch traders played an important and intimate role in the fortunes of the French industry.
The Age of Enlightenment saw an increase in the study and development of wine making methods.The Academy of Bordeaux invited students to write about clarifying wine (using white eggs to remove insoluble and suspended materials that may cause a wine to be cloudy).In Burgundy, the Academy of Dijon studied the way to improve the Burgundy wines qualities, as the wine makers focused more on which grapes varieties to use and would performed the best in the area.
When the French Revolution endured (1789-1799) a huge amount of poor quality wine was made.
Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756-1832), French chemist and the Minister of the Interior of Napoleon believed that a contributing factor to this tendency, during the Revolution, has been a lack of knowledge among many French wine makers emerging technologies and viticol practices that could improve the quality of their wines. So, Chaptal established, in 1801, those knowledge into a treaty.
“Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne”
Included as well, the action of adding sugar to the wine to increase the alcohol's level, this action is called “Chaptalization”. Chaptal's treatise was a turning point in the history of wine technology as it synthesized the current knowledge to the beginning of the 19th Century. By the mid 19th Century, the wine industry enjoyed a golden period of prosperity, a new class of consumers appeared “ The Bourgeoisie” in the wine and culinary market.
1855 is a famous date in the wine's world, Napoleon III asked to do a special classification in Bordeaux region as they were to many wines and appellations.
“1855 Classification of Bordeaux “ would become one of the world most famous ranking.
But the wine's prosperity had an end, when scientific started to have an interest in collecting botanical species from around the world, with the unintended consequences of introducing diseases that aliments and populations didn't have enough natural resistances.
North America was the source of grapes diseases, which devastated French wine industry.
-1850: Powdery mildew/Oidium
Skin color of the grapes are affected (rot), but also it reduced vine yields.
Beginning of 1880, Alexis Millardet a botanist and chemist Ulysse Gayon discovered the “Bordeaux Mixture” to prevent the powdery mildew.
French vineyards and wine makers were recovering when an other disease touched the country again, but even more devastated:
The Phylloxera
1867, the first vines, in Rhône Valley, began to deteriorate inexplicably and the problem spread rapidly.
The solution of the problem came from North America, by doing a grafting with American root-stock but they also imported the black rot in 1880.
The devastation to French vineyards brought the opportunity to explore new planting and lot of wine makers discovered and experimented the hybrid grapes (American rootstock graft on to European varieties. In the late 19th Century, the French government commissioned Louis Pasteur to conduct a study on the problems plaguing the French industry.
His findings had a lasting influence on the science of wine making. He had spend 3 to 4 years studying wine and found the fermentation development …
The development of railway system helped a lot the regions, which were not historically dependant on river transportation, to start the trade and gave them new opportunities and more commercial interests.
The 20th Century brought tow World Wars, which had a devastating effects for some regions, but gave an other opportunity of reorganized the wine industry. The development of the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine in 1935 (INAO) and the Appellation d'Origine Controlé 1936 (AOC) spearheaded by Chateau Neuf Du Pâpe producer and the lawyer Baron Pierre Leroy.
They insisted of the identity of French wines and the concept of “Terroir” and “Climat”, also programs had been adapted by the European Union to combat “wine lake” and make sure that wine makers received technical training of viticulture and wine making.
Coming into the 21st Century, some parts of French wine industry progressed while others have been faced with a crisis of confidence.