The story of Saint-Émilion

Saint-Émilion takes its name from a monk with a miraculous excuse. According to tradition, the Breton Émilion worked as a baker for the Count of Vannes. One day, carrying bread to the poor, he was stopped by an angry lord who asked what he had.

“Pieces of wood to warm the poor,” Émilion lied, and when he opened his coat, the loaves had turned into wood. He later settled here in a hermitage carved from a rock shelter and died in 767, and the monks who followed him started commercial wine production. The town, once called Ascumbas, has a history going back at least 35,000 years, and the Romans planted vines here as early as the 2nd century AD.

In 1199, John, King of England, founded the Jurade, a brotherhood that promotes Saint-Émilion wines; revived in 1948, it has 140 members who wear red robes. The town and its vineyards became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.