The Langue d'oc, which possesses a climate beneficial for many varieties of grapes, has been the site of winemaking since the earliest days of agricultural history.  There is evidence that even before the Roman era, the Celts and the Greeks produced wine in the region. It was with the Roman hegemony that wine production achieved a status that challenged even the famed wines of the Italian peninsula.  Today it is the most intensive wine production region on earth, far surpassing any other similarly defined geography.  It is, as it were, the wine barrel of France and the world.  One of every three bottles of wine in France hails from the Langue d'oc.

Even more astounding, one in ten bottles of wine produced in the world comes from this region.

The Romans legions swept into this fertile land, building a stone empire supported by trade. The marks they left cut so deep that they persist today, in roads and bridges, aqueducts and coliseums, olive groves and vineyards.  The property known as Montlaur, originally named Monte Lauro by the Romans - either for the laurels that grow there or for the "Laurus" winds that seasonally blow across the Mediterranean from Africa - has witnessed more than 2000 years of history.  Wine has been made on the property for possibly 2,600 years, ever since vines first birthed grapes under the blue Mediterranean sky.

The ancient Roman road, the Via Domitia, strikes a course through the property connecting the old Roman garrison town of Sommieres with modern-day Montpellier.  It is not difficult to imagine the large Roman villas that would have quickly sprung up in this area, rich in underground aquifers, arable land and building stone.

After the Romans, waves of barbarians and invaders swept through the region: Goths, Saracens, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Franks.  Each left its own mark on the landscape.  The great battles of Clovis and Charlemagne carved out and stabilized the Frankish kingdom.  Religious wars raged across the landscape and swirled around Montlaur, pitting Cathars against crusaders, Protestants against Catholics, the Huguenots against Richelieu.  Several individual Montlaurs played pivotal roles in history as Bishops, Templar Knights and Chatelaines of the King of France.  Montlaur is steeped in history, wearing it like a robe. One can almost hear the whispers of ghosts echoing against the stones.   MORE >