The lasting impact of Bordeaux’s Medieval Trade Privileges

by Charlie Leary

Bordeaux counts among the world’s wine powerhouses in terms of quality but also quantity of production – even though much of the past 600 hundred years has been playing catchup to the time when it was at its height of exporting success.

The first decades of the 14^th century, before the Hundred Years’ War, recorded vast shipments of wine: 93,452 tonneaux ((around 790,000 hectolitres) in 1306–1307, climbing to 102,724 tonneaux (about 850,000 hectolitres) in the record harvest of 1308–1309. As the historian Sandra Lavaud notes, this was “the peak of traffic at the port of Bordeaux from its earliest origins until modern times”.

Another historian, Charles Higounet, attributes this to “growth driven by export demand.”

Indeed, Bordeaux developed a highly commercial, outward-looking, export-orientated market over 700 years ago – much of it as a result of the interjection of state power into protecting its domestic industry, a topic that is climbing quickly back up the agenda today. As the historian Sandrine Lavaud sums up, “Protectionist barriers determined the viticultural geography of the Aquitaine basin.”

Medieval Privilege and Growth
The explanation for this lies, famously, in the Anglo-Gascon alliance created in 1152 by the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet, who became King of England two years later. But the effect was not immediate. Bordeaux obtained an exemption from all customs duties on wines grown on the vineyards of its bourgeois denizens in 1214, but still fell behind La Rochelle in the substantial British Isles trade. Only when La Rochelle fell to the French in 1224 did Bordeaux gain the English market monopoly. The impact of increased demand transformed the region’s vineyard landscape.

Privileges granted by the English crown soon spurred large increases in vineyard acreage. In 1241, Bordeaux tried to prohibit wines produced upstream of the town of St-Macaire from reaching Bordeaux before Saint Martin’s Day on November 11. Encountering some resistance, the city gradually imposed its control over river traffic, and two regions became legally defined: the Bas-Pays (so Bordeaux and its immediate area) was the privileged viticultural region that could send its wine downstream all year round. By contrast, the Haut-Pays could only access Bordeaux’s port after Saint Martin’s Day.

The outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War “deepened the divide between the now-enemy regions,” writes Lavaud. A trade war developed. Edward III extended Bordeaux’s privileges by reinforcing the prohibitions against the cities of the middle Garonne River area, which he sought to punish for their resistance to the English occupation after the 1360 Treaty of Calais. In 1373, he presented these measures as a manifestation of his royal will and decreed that the Haut-Pays could not send its wine downstream before Christmas.

“Bordeaux’s privileges were thus legitimised and became official; from then on, wines from the Haut-Pays could only reach Bordeaux after December 25, a late arrival that allowed Bordeaux to have the first choice and the monopoly on the large autumn fleets.” Bordeaux kept its various privileges until the 1770s – meaning that the French kings upheld them after the end of English rule.

Vineyard Expansion
In terms of the vineyard expansion, this occurred surrounding and within the Medieval walled city. It’s almost impossible to know exact vineyard acreages, but an idea of the growth in vineyard area and where this occurred is possible.

The growth of vignobles occurred primarily in the urban and suburban “graves” of the Left Bank, at the “coastal” vineyard in Blaye, and on the immediate Right Bank, with a gradual expansion during the 13th century into Entre-deux-Mers. Even earlier, viticultural enclaves at rural villas had existed, like that belonging to the Bordeaux bishop Bertechramus in the 7th century. Such viticultural hubs, likely all of aristocratic and ecclesiastical origin, served as the foundation for vineyard expansion during the 13^th century economic revival.

More specifically, the powerful Archbishop of Bordeaux directly managed highly-productive vineyards in the Queyries and Lormont, just across the river from the city, in today’s Bastide. The slopes of Cenon, just behind, followed closely on.

“Within the city walls,” writs Higounet, “the main planting areas in the early 15th century were those on the plateau of Saint-Seurin, from Capdeville to Carronan” – today central Bordeaux, with barely a vine to be seen. On the “graves” soils, vineyards extended “to Eysines, Bruges, and Blanquefort on one side, and to Pessac on the other.”  The Cailhau family cultivated vines in the Queyries, in Bruges, and in Pian-Médoc, clearly demonstrating that “growth following export demand.” Vineyards in the Médoc were spotty. Some export production existed in the 13th and especially in the 14th century, “when the quality of wines from the Saint-Mambert (Latour) terroir began to emerge.” However, even in the 15th century, in Upper Médoc, important vineyards remained exceptional, and production remained low.

In 1453, Charles VII took Bordeaux and the Duchy of Aquitaine. This changed the dynamics of Bordeaux’s wine trade. “With a volume remaining between 17,000 and 32,000 barrels, Bordeaux’s exports in the 16th century were significantly lower than in the late Middle Ages,” notes historian Stéphanie Lachaud-Martin. Nonetheless, the wine trade remained vitally important, and knowledge of the best vineyard sites never disappeared.

In the second half of the 17^th century, the wine trade regained momentum. “In peaceful years, writes Lachaud-Martin, up to about 900,000 hectolitres “were shipped from Bordeaux and the small ports of Blaye, Bourg, and Libourne.”

The Privileges End
Then, in 1776, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Louis XVI’s Controller-General of Finances finally abolished Bordeaux’s privileges. It was an end to protectionism. He wrote: “The Languedoc, the Périgord, the Agénois, the Quercy, and all the provinces traversed by this multitude of navigable rivers that converge under the walls of Bordeaux, not only cannot sell their wines to the inhabitants of this city who would like to buy them; these provinces cannot even freely take advantage of the route that nature offers them to communicate with all the trading nations…” Clearly, he was implying, this had to end.

His words neatly summarised the injustice of the policy – and by contrast the importance of Bordeaux’s Medieval privileges to the growth of its vast vineyards, viticultural knowledge, and trade monopoly. Lavaud says this was “far more decisive than that of the terroir’s potential,” and due to its strategic riverine location, “the capital of Guyenne was able to impose its conditions and its control over the wine trade upstream.”

The abolition of the privileges did not end the success of Bordeaux’s wine industry – even without the legal advantages, it continued to expand, even surviving the tumult of the 1789 Revolution.

In the end, Turgot’s 1776 decision marked the end of an era but also highlighted Bordeaux’s enduring commercial prowess, with the late 20th century and early 21st century seeing exports return to similar heights. Unquestionably however, the region was transformed by this historical legacy, where the strategic use of river networks and trade monopolies once ensured its central role in the wine world. The ancient privileges assured its current status as the largest Appellation Controlée region in France – but also contributed to the legacy of supply and demand issues that continue to plague its producers today. A reminder that trade protections bring headaches along with privileges.