History of French wine of Aquitaine and the future King Henry II of England brought a large portion of southwest France under English rule. When Henry's son John inherited the English crown, he sought to curry favor among the Gascons by bestowing upon them many privileges-the most notable of which was an exemption among Bordeaux merchants from the Grand Coutume export tax. With this exemption and favored treatment in London, Bordeaux wine became the cheapest wine in the London market and gained immense popularity among the English, who call it claret. For over the next 300 years much of Gascony, particular Bordeaux, benefited by
Stargarder Land (wine region) in 2006 had of vineyards, and the largest was Rheinhessen with . Thus, Stargarder Land is something of a newly created oddity in the German wine regulations, and the region is generally not considered as Germany's 14th "Anbaugebiet", but rather as a smaller district which leads its own existence outside the regions. The region's wine is produced by two small winemaking cooperatives, one in Rattey (Schloss Rattey) operating and one in Burg Stargard on . The amount of wine produced is so small that it is not sold commercially, but rather handed out as dividend to the members of the