oaks are able to survive in clay and gravel soils – contained what was an ideal
Lafite Rothschild
12
History Fact and fiction
winemaking terroir for the Romans, rather than the sandy and gravelly river
sediment on the left bank of the Garonne to the north and west of the city where
the Romans probably grew their vines, or the scree to the south which Bordeaux
locals planted from the 16th century. And least of all on the gravel hilltops of
the Médoc, which only became accessible all year round once Dutch engineers
had drained the surrounding marshes using a sophisticated system of channels
and sluices. But even so, Saint-Emilion and Pomerol, whose winemaking his-
tory apparently has Roman roots (the name is a reference to fruit cultivation,
with ‘poma' meaning apple but also fruit in general, so why not grapes?), stood
at the gates of the city of Libourne, which failed to rival Bordeaux despite its
small port. Rural Libourne thus produced wine primarily for personal use until
the mid-18th century.
In fact, the ditches and furrows which the Romans supposedly carved out of
the limestone rock to facilitate the rooting of their vines (as mentioned in nu-
merous scholarly books) have been shown by recent research to date from the
18th century. Furthermore, scholars have long been arguing about the location
of the remains of the grandiose Villa Lucaniacus belonging to Roman statesman
and poet Ausonius. But they are hardly likely to be slumbering in Saint-Emilion
and are thus of no use as proof of the wonderful wines which the town is sup-
posed to have already been producing at the time.
Arnaud II. de Pontac
13
Fact and fiction
Ausonius went down in Bordeaux history because he scratched ‘Oh father-
land, famous for its vines' into a clay tablet, inscribed it on parchment or some
other material, and also noted in passing that he owned around 25 hectares of
vineyards alongside a few hundred hectares of agricultural land. This does not
mean very much, however, as no true Roman estate would have done otherwise,
as wine was a way of raking in extra wealth, prompting Diodorus Siculus to com-
ment in the first century BC: ‘The avaricious temperament of many Roman trad-
ers exploits the Gallic passion for wine. On the boats which follow the waterways
or by wagons which roll across the plain, they transport wine, from which they
make fantastic profits, going as far as trading one amphora for one slave, in such
manner that the buyer brings his servant to pay for the drink.'
The Roman scholar, politician and poet Decimus Magnus Ausonius was born
in Bordeaux in around 310 (other sources refer to Vasate or Bazas) and died after
a long career in 395 on his family's estate in la Réole in southern Gironde. There is
virtually nothing to associate him with Saint-Emilion. The legend that he owned
a winery there emerged in the 17th or 18th century, and I cannot help thinking
that there are prevailing mercantile and chauvinist interests in this interpretation
of history. Here are the facts: Ausonius's writings mention a villa called Lucani-
acus which ‘could rival a palace in Rome' and could apparently be reached from
Ausonius
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