When did winemaking start in France?

Limousin was the first area we looked at, years ago. It's about eighty miles further west, and although very picturesque and great value, it was just too far away from Geneva (Brother) and route down from Calais (me), so that's how we settled on the area from Dijon down through Beaune and around to Macon. Basically, most of Cote D'Or and some of Saone et Loire.

Plus the fact that the above triangle contains one of the finest wine making regions known to humanity.

Make sure to invite us once you're ready to move in. I have very found memories of wine tasting orgies in Beaune...

Did a three night stint in Beaune a few years back and had a great time.

We visited Patriarche et Fils, who own an old convent which has several kilometers of underground cellars. Stacks of various Heaute Cote de Beaune etc, for every year from when Noah was a lad, right through to the present day.

Except for 1944. Every mayor in every town in France ordered bottle upon bottle of '44 in 1994, to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the Liberation.

If anyone has a half decent unopened bottle of '44 Burgundy anywhere, it's worth a fortune.

Patriarche cellar (tiny parts of.......it goes on for miles)

Nice. You gonna have a rather busy retirement if you want to emulate the locals... I'll bring a pick and a shovel at your house warming party.

There was very little to none wine making in France till the Romans showed up . Then it took off .

Wine was imported into Gaul from Italy and Spain as early as the Etruscans, and from the early Greek settlements some areas began producing wine . It was always a major import and a very expensive one at that . Some Gallic tribes banned the import and consumption of wine, others buried their leaders with enormous quantities of it . One of the reasons Caesar went into Gaul was all the gold coming out to pay for wine, amongst other things .

When the Romans settled towns in Gaul, they brought the wine makers with them and Gaul ceased to be a major importer . Areas such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne, Languedoc, Loire Valley and the Rhone became major producers during this time .

As late as the High Middle Ages some of the famous modern wine producing areas were still being settled . Monasteries not only found and settled wine areas but were also given some of the best areas . Areas near a river or sea port produced the most wines because they could sell the most . Some areas like Burgundy suffered because of a lack of water transport during this period .

History of wine is differing in prestige when it comes to quality of wine in recent centuries.

The lands of Europe are "old" and their wine is acquiring a "bitter" flavor that -to me in particular- is leading to a natural high quality vinegar rather than an enjoyable wine.

Amazingly, wine from California -fresh new land- is of a batter taste. Same as well as wine from Chile, from Australia... from any place of Africa...

I had the opportunity to compare pictures of olives, grapes, and oranges from early 1800s with today's production in the same land. One can notice that the former fruits look "more healthier" than today's fruits. The land in study does not produce the same quality of food anymore.

French wine -in my opinion- conserves it's prestige by tradition, not so by its flavor, because I can tell when I taste wine, that the wine from California is greatly superior in taste, texture, color, aroma... you name it.

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Anecdote:

An attorney who was friend of Mario Cuomo (ex Governor of New York City) went to DC and visited his girlfriend who lived in Virginia. He planned to stay for a few weeks and he brought wine from his stock at home. One of them was a very old one from France which he opened at the table.

Besides the girlfriend, there were other invited people. Our visitor served himself some wine for tasting.

His face turned a little ugly when he "smelled it" and worst when he tasted it. But, very polite and with extreme confidence, he closed the bottle and said.

-This wine is so good, that I will keep it for myself as my private stock....-and so forth.

Everybody laughed. For some reason, 'perhaps heat, his old French wine was bad. Then he opened a Vinho Verde from Portugal, which was not a wine to start a dinner, but damn! its acid flavor was marvelous!