La Roche-Vineuse, Chasselas, Le Cellier-aux-Moines, La Goutte-d'Or... As you can see, French vineyard history can be told by looking at place names.

First of all, let’s suppose any region in France that could, at some time or another in the course of history, grow produce and sell it was a vineyard region. There are so many towns, villages and place names that show traces of grape growing, even if the vines disappeared long ago thanks to phylloxera, the railways or urban expansion.

So, ‘Nouvion-le-Vineux’ tells us that the Laon area was a wine region, which has been backed up by other documentation. And several place names in the Ile-de-France (Vigneux-sur-Seine, Vigny, la rue des Morillons, from the grape variety name) confirm that ‘french wines’, as they used to say in the Middle Ages, were everywhere up until recent times.

Toponymy (village names) and micro-toponymy (site names, plots) are the study of these remains. These place names can go back to different periods: pre-Roman, Gallic-Roman, Medieval or more recently.

Without picking any particular region, we’ll have a look at a few examples of terms that gave their name to places.

Certainly you’ll find the vine and its offshoots in pole position (vignette literally little vine, vignette or seal; vignolle, vignaud, vignasse (plus vinasse meaning plonk), vincelles), cep or vine stock (from the Latin cippus, foot), plants (plant, plantier = shrubbery or vineyard, planted), young plants (capons), names of vine variety vanished or still with us and these varieties’ characteristics (‘Nègres’ for a variety leaving black stains).

Grape growing methods can be construed from common terms: vignes hautes = high-trained vines, sur échalas = staked or fils de fer = on a wire (hautains, tires, fourches = lofty, drill or hoist, fork or rake), treille (traille, treuil) = trellis (trawl, winch), rangs de vigne = vine rows (rondeaux = round plate), sillons = furrows (versennes), pieux = posts or stakes (échalas = tree stake, paisseau, troche = cluster, truchot), certain pruning methods (gobelettes = goblets or little bush vines), surface areas (arpent = an old measure, oumée, hommée = manmade, ouvrée = worked or wrought), plants grown alongside vines (e.g. groseillers = redcurrant bushes).

Some names relate to buildings and fixtures: clos = walled vineyard, murets = low walls (or murgers or perodelles), cabane = hut or shelter (or cadole), celliers = cellars, pressoirs = presses, bennes = tub or skip (tonneaux = barrels)

You can also point to occupations connected to wine: glass manufacturers, casks (coopers), bars...

Certain plots were given a derogatory name: verjus = verjuice or acidic grape (not ripe), hence verjutier; bouvreux or bouvrots (only producing green unripe grapes), mocque-bouteille = mock-bottle, moque-tonneau = mock-barrel or moque-poinçon literally mock-punch (vines with disappointing yields), piquette (or picotte) = poor quality wine, galoppe, varosse, bardolle (inferior vines)...

Certain expressions describe good land for vines: goutte d'or = drop of gold, grains d'argent = silver grains or grapes, violettes = violets (thanks to the wine’s aroma from this plot) but also chante-perdrix = singing partridge or chante-merle = singing blackbird (just as good for making birds sing as for planting vines).

Finally some words describe certain parcels’ ‘actual’ characteristics and are still in current use. Les matines means land that catches the early morning sun. The terms pérole, perrières, gravains, roches, crêts relate to stony or rocky ground. A gelière is connected to bad frost in the area...

What a rich tapestry! This is why we’ll have a regular section on this site with real illustrations, taken from various regions and French regional variety.

André Deyrieux