Bordeaux is one of the oldest and largest wine growing regions in the world, producing more than 800 million bottles of wine annually from more than 12,000 châteaux. Over its 2000 year history of wine production, Bordeaux has divided itself into three general growing regions; codified a system of appellations that indicate the specific area from which a wine hails; established through trial and error the grapes varietals that make the best wine given the terroir and growing conditions; and in the last 150 years, created classifications that rank the wines by quality, and unintentionally, by price. As one of the most beautiful and impressive wine regions in the world, Aquitaine Wine Company encourages both professionals and amateurs in the industry to visit Bordeaux.

History

	Gallo-Roman Era & Early Christians Bordeaux’s history with wine dates back to Gallo-Roman times, when the city and its region formed an important Roman colony. The Romans had named the city Burdigala and the region Aquitainia. Under the Romans, Bordeaux also gave its name to a grape variety, Biturica, the ancestor of Cabernet Sauvignon, cementing the region’s identity with wine.
	The Roman Consul and poet Ausone had a villa and vineyards near Saint Emilion, on one of the hills of the tiny appellation Saint Georges as well as vineyards around the city of Bordeaux. Wine was an important part of daily Roman life. While sojourning in Germany with the Roman Emperor, he wrote a poem about Bordeaux’s wines, guaranteeing their fame in distant lands.
	After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was early Christians who sustained the wine trade. Wine had become integral to celebrating mass and religious holidays. Small vineyard plots were planted throughout the city and every parish had its own plots. The religious orders grew richer, increasing their land holdings and cultivating more and more vineyards. It became something of a point of honor for the higher clergy to develop high-quality wines. Eventually, the tonneaux (barrel) was invented as a means of transporting wine on the water ways, and the commercialization of wine had begun.
	Eleanor and the English Eleanor of Aquitaine was an extremely wealthy, powerful and well-educated leader. She first married the French King Louis VI (Louis the Pious), and while it lasted 15 years, it ended in an annulment. Two months later, Eleanor took her extensive lands and wealth and married a Frenchman 11 years younger, Henry Plantagenet. Henry was the Duke of Normandy and the Count of Anjou. Just two years after their wedding, quite unexpectedly, young Henry was crowned King of England. This placed half of France under the possession of the English crown, although of course, neither Eleanor nor Henry was English. Together, Eleanor and Henry owned more land the French king, which explains the Royal feud that ensued, eventually resulting in the Hundred Years War.
	The immediate result, however, was that Bordeaux suddenly became the main supplier of wine for England. The export market rapidly developed. When La Rochelle, another port, fell to the French, Bordeaux grew even busier. For 300 years, this region flourished thanks to its relationship with the English Empire.
	Successive English monarchs were happy: England had a reliable supply of a product they needed and the Crown earned taxes on it. In turn, the city also earned taxes on the trade, which paid its administrative and military costs - the latter being fairly substantial as the French kings attacked often, jealously eyeing the land and the tax revenue.
	Meanwhile, the special privileges and tax relief for the merchants had created a wealthy Bourgeois class, loyal to the English. It also allowed the Bordeaux merchants to monopolize the port and dictate the origin of the wine that could be shipped from Bordeaux - effectively shutting out the Libourne merchants, who were forced to ship inland. Wine from inland was allowed only when Bordeaux lacked the necessary supply. The non-Bordeaux wine merchants were only allowed to sell on certain dates, the dates naturally favoring the Bordeaux merchants, as wine needed to leave the port in time to reach England for the Christmas and Easter holidays.
	Getting the wine to England was risky. The King of France kept a navy off of Brittany with the sole purpose of capturing English wine shippers. This meant that the ships left in enormous flotillas with armed escorts. There was no way to ship wine to England if you were not part of this powerful Bordeaux merchant force.
	When the English possession of Aquitaine and the Plantagenet lands ended in 1453, the French revoked the special privileges, and Bordeaux wavered on the brink of seceding. Over the next 400 years, there were risings and rebellions, until finally, a few decades after the French Revolution and with the arrival of Napoleon III’s favorable free trade policy, Bordeaux acquiesced to a central French authority.
	Chartrons Negociants The Chartrons district begins at the edge of the old city limits, at Fenwick House, the first American consul, built in 1790. The Americans, like most other foreigners for the previous 600 years, were in Bordeaux for one reason: wine. The Americans were important buyers of classified growths before the ink had dried on their Constitution, and they wanted to keep an eye on their shipping interests. They chose their location well.
	The quarter stretches along the river, encompassing the quays, and cobblestone streets, where wine was bought and sold, stored and shipped. The cobblestones are the ballast from the boats returning from England. The grand mansions bordering the Jardin Public were once the chic residences of the prosperous wine merchants. The buildings near the quay that stretch back city blocks, once housed wine barrels.
	The Chartrons gets its name from the Chartreuse monks who lived in the area during the 14th-15th centuries. They had taken refuge in what was at time an uninhabited swamp on the outskirts of a prosperous city. After the Hundred Years War ended in 1453, the monks left the Chartrons and the English left Bordeaux. The economy suffered terribly, but in the 17th century new foreign merchants, mainly from Holland, arrived and settled in the abandoned, perfectly situated Chartrons quarter. Originally they settled there, because the local Bordeaux merchants wouldn’t allow them in the city. Soon, however, other wine merchants followed: Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, Jewish Portuguese, and eventually, the English were allowed back. The Chartrons quarter grew into a vibrant, influential community and the center of the Bordeaux wine trade.
	Perhaps by virtue of being foreigners, Protestants, and sharing a common trade, these newcomers had more in common with each other than the local French. Even centuries later, these families have retained the cultural identity of their native lands.
	The Calvets were a rarity amongst the grand wine negociant families. They are Catholic and French, and they were already well established as wine merchants before setting up offices in Bordeaux. Nevertheless, the Calvets became such a powerful force in the wine trade that they were accepted in the exclusive, Protestant world of wine merchants. These wine dynasties have intermarried, formed business partnerships and supported and competed with each other for generations.
	Originally, negociants were wine merchants that purchased the wine from estates prior to aging and bottling. They took possession of the young wine, aged them in their own cellars in the Chartrons quarter, and then marketed and sold the wines worldwide. Until the mid 20th century, all of the classified growths, including the first growths, were aged and bottled in the cellars of negociants. An old bottle of a classified growth will typically have the name of the wine and the name of the negociant that aged and bottled the wine. Now, of course, wine is aged and bottled at the estates, but many wine merchants, including the Calvets and their company, Aquitaine Wine Company, continue to live with their families and conduct their export business in this dynamic, historical district.