Region winegrowing history

While it is unlikely that vines were cultivated here in Neolithic times, it is more than probable that the first vines were planted on the plateau during the Roman occupation of the site.

In 1074, the collector of tithes at Vix was convicted to return to the Abbess of Saintes 13 hogsheads of wine that he took away from tax paid by a single inhabitant. A judgment that gives some ideas of the size of the crop at that time. The 17thc. wars between Catholics and Protestants and the siege of La Rochelle led to a decline of the wine trade so vines were not seen again on the slopes of Vix until the 18thc. And it was only in year 2000 that the first wine was harvested at the Domaine of la Chaume.

This was due to first vine plantation in 1997 on this 17ha terroir consisting in a continuous piece and originally completely virgin from any vineyard. Property is lying at the western limit of the former island of Vix, which, although the sea ceased to lap its shores some 2500 years ago, still benefit from maritime air.