Heroes of French Wine

Heroes of French Wine. . Marker One: , St. Vincent of Saragossa: ? - 304 AD , St. Vincent of Saragossa died in the year 304, martyred during the last persecution of Christians by Roman Emperor Maximilian. By the early middle ages he had been adopted by grape growers and winemakers in Europe as their patron saint. Legend has it that once St. Vincent stopped by the edge of a vineyard to speak with the men working there, and his donkey nibbled at the young vine shoots. At the next harvest, it was discovered that the nibbled vines produced more fruit than the rest. St. Vincent's donkey had invented the art of vine pruning. The Festival de la Saint-Vincent Tournante in Burgundy, France has honored St. Vincent every year since the 1930's. , St. Bernard of Clairvaux: 1090 - 1153 , A French abbot, and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order of the Catholic Church, whose monks developed and documented for the first time essential wine making techniques that vastly improved the quality of wine. These included skilled pruning to reduce yield, and a systematic regime of careful hygiene in the cellars. The Cistercians built vinification cellars in the villages next to their vineyards, which led to the making of wines with consistently distinctive characteristics, and thus the discovery of what we now call Terroir - the association of soil and weather conditions that make for particular flavors and aromas in wine., Dom Pierre Pérignon: 1638 1715 , A French Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon pioneered a number of wine-making techniques; he was among the first to document the blending of different grapes to improve the quality of wine. In 1670 he perfected the art of producing clear white wines from red grapes through clever manipulation of his presses, thereby retaining their natural sugar in order to induce secondary fermentation in the spring. And thus our magnificent bubbles!, California’s First Premium Winery , ~1857~. , Marker Two: , History Hill. , As you make the short walk to our historic winery, you will observe historic figures nestled into our green hillside of the Mayacamas Mountains. The Count of Buena Vista dug into the living rock of those volcanic mountains to make the first wine cellars and stone winery buildings in California, thereby enduring his place in wine history., It is with a profound respect and admiration for important people in history that we present their images upon our hillside., The groupings we present may spark connections… indeed, many themes exist herein: the story of wine from ancient times to the present, the discovery of the New World, revolutionary heroes in politics and science, the building and creating of the American West, and California wine heroes., We hope that considering these groupings may bring forth conversations best resolved with a glass of delicious Buena Vista wine. Please enjoy… the journey of wine is the journey of life itself!