Two Millennia of Beaujolais Pierres Dorées
A Vine Rooted in Time and Soil
From Gallo-Roman Villas to the First Harvests
Since the first Gallo-Roman villas were established between Anse and Pommiers, the vine has never left the ochre hills of Beaujolais Pierres Dorées. The stones of ancient cellars, still exuding the scent of must, remind us that, even in ancient times, this region produced wines with character.
From the Middle Ages to the Ancien Régime, Villages Shaped by Wines
Centuries passed: in the early Middle Ages, a few Latin documents mention the vineyards of Tasiacus, the current Theizé, or Lagniacus, now known as Légny. These discreet mentions are enough to testify to an unbroken thread: generation after generation, the vines became more firmly rooted in these soils that bathe, every evening, in the golden sunlight.
XIXe → XXe centuries – Phylloxera and the renaissance of the AOC Beaujolais
When, under the Ancien Régime, forests gave way, the vineyard conquered the hillsides and villages became hives of wine-related trades. In Bagnols, for example, there were fourteen coopers for a hundred households! The landscape, now woven with rows of vines, shaped the inhabitants’ character as well as their language: one no longer speaks of yesterday or tomorrow, but of the next vintage.
At the end of the 19th century, phylloxera dug its trenches.
The vineyard vacillated, and polyculture took hold again in the wait for the vines to be grafted and healed. Yet, confidence never died: it was revived on September 12, 1937, when the AOC Beaujolais was born. The Pierres Dorées, fueled by this momentum, replant, harvest, and age their wines, becoming once again a beacon of the French wine industry.
2018 → 2019 – Worldwide recognition: UNESCO Geopark and living heritage
More recently, recognition has gone global. In 2018, Beaujolais became the first vineyard to have a UNESCO Geopark certification. The following year, Villefranche and the Community of Communes received the “Ville & Pays d’Art et d’Histoire” certification. Recognition that in every glass is expressed the geological, scenic, and human richness of this terroir, a mosaic of soils, schist, limestone, granite, marl, and golden rocks.
2017 → Today – Towards a DGC recognition for the Beaujolais Pierres Dorées
In October 2017, the project was officially presented to the INAO. 2022 marked the launch with events aimed at promoting the DGC (Complementary Geographical Designation) to both professionals and the general public. Today, the winemakers, gathered in a collective, have a new dream: to have the Beaujolais Pierres Dorées officially recognized as a DGC within the Beaujolais AOC. They are drafting the charter of obligations, organising tastings, sharing and explaining. On the horizon is a wine, proud of its two-thousand-year history and resolutely turned towards tomorrow’s wine lovers.
Promise of the future, a memory etched in our golden stones
The Beaujolais Pierres Dorées is no longer just a vineyard; it is a beating heart, the story the rocks tell those who listen.
Sculpted by millennia of geology and tamed by generations of winemakers, this landscape breathes the rare alliance of longevity and human passion. Each vintage becomes the voice of a terroir, whispering the warmth of sunsets over the ochre hills, the mineral radiance of the stone that holds the memory, and the patient hand that prunes, harvests, and ages the grapes. Thus, in each glass, the future mingles with the past, and one tastes this unique alchemy where light, rock, and the soul of man come together to offer a wine for today and tomorrow.