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The 'Médoc' is a flat piece of land in between the Atlantic to the west and the Gironde estuary to the east. Its name is derived from the Latin 'pagus medulorum' or 'middle territory', describing its geographical location.
The
first inhabitants of the area were a tribe of Celts, ancestors of the
Gallo Romans, and great hunters and fisherman but as far as we know not
wine producers.
In the Middle Ages the land was mainly marsh, moorland, and forests. Vines were beginning to appear around priories (such as Macau and Cantenac) and seigneuries (such as Castelnau and Lesparre).
In the sixteenth century merchants from Bordeaux began to establish estates in the area, built on the alluvial deposits or 'palus'.
However
it wasn't until the seventeenth century after much of the marshland had
been drained by Dutch engineers that wine chateaux began to emerge. By
the second half of the 18th Century, most of the Médoc vineyards
had been established.
We work with the Bergey family, owners of Château le Temple and Château Breuilh, whose history can be traced back many centuries.
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