HISTORY
"THE PATH OF DESTINY WINE."
"Icelle earth by his substance is fat, strong, dense and reads and retains moisture."
This quote from Rabelais sheds light on the origin of the name Lisennes. "Lize" in Old French is synonymous with mud, the same family as clay, formerly "church". We also find this root, probably Celtic in "stuck".
The clay-limestone soil Lisennes is probably the source of its name.
Since when? From who?
The first traces of the official field appear on a bill of sale from 1758. However its location is certified under other names a century ago.
Thus, the earliest known owner is Etienne de Baritaud, King's Counsel at the Court of Aids Guyenne in the early eighteenth century.
His heir, the Marquis of Rabar Joseph, sold the property in 1758 to Guillaume Bardon quartermaster of gendarmes of the usual guard of the King:
"This sale ainsy done in return for the price and sum of twenty four thousand pounds a share of six hundred pounds and the other form of bribe."
A very old vineyard.
From the I century, during the Roman occupation, the presence of the vine is attested around Bordeaux. It thrives on the left bank of the Garonne (currently Graves region) and subsequently on the slopes of the right bank.
But the real development dates from the Middle Ages. The determinant of the destiny of Bordeaux was the annexation of Gascony and Guyenne to the crown of England, in 1152 by marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantegenet, Count of Anjou and King of England.
A considerable market opens, and from the thirteenth century, when King of England loses Anjou, and Aunis and Saintonge, Bordeaux became the exclusive supplier of the English aristocracy. At that time, the vineyards located along the rivers grow. They are present in Lisennes from the twelfth century.
"The Blackbird", area bordering the property, is quoted in the year 1260 in an act: "Mail Aiquem Blackbird" Treces "and Peyrone, his wife, Elias Madirac than 17 vineyards and Reges Treilles located in the parish of Braids, in the Estaga Belha of Blackbirds, between the common path and the creek for $ 60 in Bordeaux.
This source is very interesting on viticulture at the time. A little later in the fifteenth century, the chronicler Monstrelet is surprised to see the vineyards of Bordeaux "as high trellises."
It must be said that production was likely of poor quality. The means of conservation does not exist, it must consume the wine in the year to avoid seeing them turn into vinegar.
Hence the importance of the privileges granted by the King of England to Bordeaux merchants on the primacy of sales on wines of the hinterland upstream of the Garonne.
Gradually over the centuries, thanks to advances in technology, product quality improves and the various operators strive to showcase the wealth of the soil. This is the case of successive owners of Lisennes ....