Five French wines to celebrate Bastille Day
The national day of France is celebrated on 14 July with parties, fireworks, parades and, of course, wine.
On 14 July 1789, a mob of Parisian citizens stormed the Bastille, a prison that had become a symbol of the oppression of the ruling monarchy.
It was a turning point in the French Revolution, a culmination of social upheaval and the dissatisfaction of the common people against the ruling elite.
It marked the end of the ancien régime – the old order – and the beginning of the first French Republic.
Wine, as it happens, was tangled up in all of it.
Quick-fire history of wine in France
The vine likely arrived in southern Gaul (the anicent area of Europe that roughly corresponds to mondern day France) around 600 BCE – centuries before any king wore a crown or the concept of France even existed.
Winemaking and viticulture flourished under Roman rule, but it was the monastic orders in the Middle Ages that turned viticulture and wine into a discipline. Monasteries owned huge swathes of vineyards.
It was the drink of the clergy; the church was rich with vineyard land, fueling a feudal economy.
Wine was also a status symbol in the royal courts. The nobles were drinking Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux.
But the Revolution toppled the monarchy, and broke the aristocratic leash on wine. Vineyards and land were redistributed, sold back to the people, and wine became their tonic.
Bastille Day is marked as a recognition of the power of the people. Here are five French wines with which to toast it.
Five French wines to toast to Bastille Day
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