History of Wine in Medieval Europe

     The vineyards in France and Germany were owned by monasteries from the Benedictine and Cistercian orders. The famous Close de Vougeot vineyard and Kloster Eberbach vineyard in Burgundy and Germany were created by the Cistercian order.  Ownership of the vineyards and the market for wine depends on the power of the Church and Italy, the centre of commerce in the 11th century. Burgundian wine for example was spread and promoted by the Roman Church and Valois duke in the late 1400s.

     Wine at that time was sold young and very acidic as they were kept in barrels which accelerate the rate of oxidation. The quality of wine improved greatly during the early 1700s when the English developed high quality glass bottle and began to seal wine bottles wine stoppers. This also made possible for wine to age longer.

     New types of wines such as Champagne were being developed by chance and creativity. Champagne has carbon dioxide bubbles in it were famous in 1720s among cafes. The strong bottle which allowed the pressure of bubbles to built up further allowed it to be store in bottles longer and became a famous ‘sparkling wine’.

     The French Revolution in the 1780 affected the wine industry as vineyards where taken from the Church and noble groups and auctioned back to the people. Vineyards were also annexed by the Napoleonic law of inheritance which state the all vineyards must be inherited by their children equally. This results in smaller vineyards which is still around up to today