Saint-Émilion

People lived on the site at least 35,000 years ago, and in Gaulish times an oppidum stood on the hill above the present town. After Augustus annexed the region in 27 BC, the Romans planted vines here as early as the 2nd century AD, and in the 4th century the poet Ausonius praised the local vine. The place, then called Ascumbas, took its name from Émilion, a Breton monk who, according to tradition, had been a baker for the Count of Vannes. He carved out a hermitage in a rock shelter and lived there until his death in 767, and the monks who followed him began commercial wine production.

The town lay on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, and monasteries and churches multiplied, among them the vast church cut into the cliff in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, probably to hold the saint's body. In 1199, under Plantagenet rule, King John of England granted the town its charter and created the Jurade, which controlled the quality of the wine shipped to England from a port on the Dordogne. Walls enclosed the town from the early 13th century, and the Tour du Roy was built in 1237.

The wars of religion damaged the vineyards, and much of the religious heritage was destroyed during the Revolution, when the Jurade also lost its powers. The vineyards recovered only in the late 19th century. Wine growers revived the Jurade as a brotherhood in 1948, the first official classification of Saint-Émilion wines followed in 1955, and in 1999 the town and its vineyards became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Life here revolves around wine, and the Jurade is its emblem. Its 140 jurats, in traditional red robes, parade through the village twice a year. In June, after mass and inductions in the cloister of the collegiate church or in the monolithic church, they climb the Tour du Roy to give their judgement on the new wine; on the third Sunday of September they proclaim the start of the harvest from the same tower. The brotherhood promotes Saint-Émilion wines around the world and hosts wine receptions and induction ceremonies.

The village is one of France's leading tourist sites, with around a million visitors a year, and its stone lanes, underground monuments and wine shops are shaped by that traffic. Its underground excavations are extensive, and the stone for its houses came from the limestone plateau it stands on.

The calendar follows the vineyard: estates open their doors at the beginning of May, the jazz festival has filled the village at the end of July since 2012, and the harvest runs into autumn. The classification of the estates is revised roughly every ten years. The town's Gascon name is Sent Milion.

About 1,600 people lived in the commune at the 2023 census, and the village itself is far quieter than its fame suggests once the day visitors leave. Vineyards cover more than 67 per cent of the commune's land, and most work is tied to wine: growing, harvesting, cellar work, sales and the hospitality trade that serves visitors.

The Saint-Émilion appellation covers about 5,200 hectares of vines across its eight communes and is dominated by Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The commune belongs to the urban unit of Libourne, a group of ten communes. Libourne, the nearby sub-prefecture and wine-trading capital of northern Gironde, provides the larger shops, schools and services, and Bordeaux, 35 km away, is within reach by train or car.

The year has two peaks — the summer tourist season and the harvest in September and October, when the vineyards fill with pickers and tractors — and a quiet winter.

Saint-Émilion's own speciality is the macaron, made continuously since 1620 to a recipe handed down by Ursuline nuns: a simple traditional macaroon of ground almonds, sugar and fresh egg whites. The pastry shops of the village sell them in boxes, and they are the classic souvenir after wine.

The wine is red and mostly blended. The Right Bank estates of Saint-Émilion and neighbouring Pomerol are dominated by Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with only limited Cabernet Sauvignon, in contrast to the Médoc and Graves across the river system. Saint-Émilion was left out of the 1855 Bordeaux classification; its own list, introduced in 1955, is revised periodically, and wine shops on every lane sell bottles from small growers to classified estates.

Restaurants follow the cooking of the Bordeaux area: entrecôte à la bordelaise, a steak with a red-wine and shallot sauce, and canelés, small caramelised cakes flavoured with rum and vanilla, alongside the duck and walnuts of the nearby Périgord. Café and restaurant terraces fill the market square below the monolithic church.