It is customary to date the wineproducing region very early back in the history of men, yet it was difficult to talk about wine. Even if it was made from grapes, the wine that could have been produced in these days did not have anything in common with the today wines.

The occupation of the place by men dates back to the superior Paleolithic period, as the abundance of cut flints found in Marigny-Brizay and its neighboring villages testify. The wealth of cutting stones such as sandstones and flints may be one of the main reasons why this place was inhabited so early in this age. The place already had an history, the wine did not exist yet.

History does not tell us if the important roman city of Lemonum did grow wines on this hill, for its own needs. Pline did not make any allusion to it in his classification... But things changed, the first class wines of these ancient times are not the most captivating anymore…

The first written evidence of the Poitou’ s wines comes from Tristan and Iseult. According to the legend they took some of the Poitou’ s wine to the King Arthur himself and offered him. That was a precious commodity. But the Poitou of this time was spreading as far as La Rochelle... The One Hundred Years war necessitated the intense use of the Poitou’ s chalk . Chalk was a material easy to work, and the caves dug to extract the precious material, served as shelters during the war. These numerous vestiges are visible throughout region and more specifically in Ampelidae’ s properties, where the cellar, beneath the Chateau, was probably later used as a place of worship. The 14th century saw the birth of different constructions along the route of Saint-Jacques. The Manor of Lavauguyot was built in this period as well as the Mailleterie.

1In 1530, Rabelais must have really been inspired by the Poitou’ s Sauvignon, to the point that he described it as the “casus belli” of the Pichrocoline war. Two other grape varieties were already present : The Cabernet-Franc and the Pinot (of course, these three varieties that have crossed the time, remained among Ampelidae’ s best wines selection! ).

It is in 1699, that a trail of the Manor of Lavauguyot is found whose all the owner ‘s goods are seized by the King’ s guards of this period, Louis XIV. Jean Portal, a banker, lived in the manor house and had three barrels of wine in its cellar. They were part of the value seized because they were mentioned on the verbal lawsuit. Was an « outstanding wine » already called “Marigny” in the western France as this will be the case in the early days of the 19 th ? Sir Portal flew his country and reached England, taking his secret away with him! At the end of the19th century, a neighboring property belonged to the President of the French Hybrider Company. The vineyard was mainly convert into Léon Millau and others 5455 (hybrids). They were more worried about the quantity rather than the quality. A way of working that did not really bother Rodolphe Salis and his Aunt, who was the owner of the property. In 1893, he opened the worldwide famous cabaret “the Chat-Noir”, known through its ad, painted by Steinlin. Perhaps that was he just trying to influence his customers, but anyways, he was not very reasonable with the volume he could soak up! It was necessary to wait the post-war days to see a new policy emerge. Based on quality, it was lead by the old owners of Lavauguyot.
The property’ s wine is mentioned in 1953 in “Le Guide Michelin”, next to one of the rarest first class restaurant of the post-war “Chez Serge” on the La Rochelle’ s quays. Willingly, the owner popularized it on the Atlantic coast and formed a friendship with Charles Exbrayat a famous thriller writer. Did the author of “les douceurs provinciales” (the provincial softness) find in Lavauguyot a source of inspiration? He did as the property is quoted in several works. In 1990, obviously no property did not produce any Outstanding Wine, because none of them gave themselves every chance of succeeding on this exceptional soil.
Why would not France be a place to produce new style wines ?
Producing some of the finest wines of the western France, faithful and contemporary, here is the bet that Ampelidae has made with itself at the turning point of two millenniums.