History of Bordeaux wine soldiers. However, it is only in 71 AD that Pliny the Elder recorded the first real evidence of vineyards in Bordeaux. The area's location along the Gironde estuary provided an ideal trade route with the British Isles. Wine historian, Roger Dion, has theorized that the first vine cuttings that the Romans brought to Bordeaux originated in the Rioja region of Spain. The early budding of the Bordeaux wine industry suffered a number of disruptions following the fall of Rome. The area was occupied by Vandals in AD 408, Goths in 406, and Visigoths in 414. The area was also subjected
Bordeaux wine regions in fact exclusively lists red wine producers from the Haut-Médoc plus Château Haut-Brion of Graves, and (in a separate list) sweet white wine producers from Sauternes (including Barsac). Estates in the Médoc which were not classified in that listing may be classified under the Cru Bourgeois label. In 1953, a Classification of Graves wine was produced. Although this purports to classify the whole of Graves, it exclusively lists châteaux in Pessac-Léognan. In 1954, a separate classification of Saint-Émilion wine was set up for this Right Bank region. There are eight AOCs that cover the entire department of Gironde. Any producer