Some history
In 1949, a small team of dynamic wine producers and merchants joined forces with Henri Martin, a cooper’s son and former Mayor of Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, to create a Wine Order specifically for the Médoc. The Graves vineyards joined them in 1959.
This Wine Order took the name of Commanderie, after a religious Commanderie founded in the Middle Ages at a church at Benon near Saint-Laurent de Médoc, then a little later a second seat at Arcins. Vine-growing, ageing and selling wine soon became the principal income for these agricultural and solider monks.
The symbolic bontemps
The Commanderie chose the “bontemps”, a typically Médoc symbol; a wooden bowl in which the cellar-master beats the egg whites used for fining and clarifying the wine.
This bontemps also served as a model for the Commanders’ headdress, a hat of wine-coloured velvet and white organdie symbolizing the wine-stained wood and the beaten egg whites.
The costume is a simplified version of that worn by the ancient Commanderies; wine-coloured velvet with ample folds, enhanced by a cloak and secured with a buckle in the form of the bontemps.
The Commanderie is an association of the three activities in the wine trade: winemakers, brokers and merchants.
Vine-growers bring their personal presence, their know-how, their land and their installations, the brokers their knowledge of the product and of men, the merchants their relations, their market experience and access to the world-wide market.
The three festivals
Three important moments punctuate the Médoc year, each symbolized by a ‘fête’ the Saint-Vincent, patron saint of winemakers, a celebration for the men and women of vines and wines, cellar masters and vine workers. The Fête de la Fleur at the end of June celebrates spring and the appearance of the vine flowers. The Ban des Vendanges in September marks the official opening of the harvesting period.
Each of these fêtes, held in a Château of the Médoc or Graves, brings together personalities from different professional and geographic horizons, including guests from the world of politics, economics and art, who all come together for the greater glory of the wines of the Region.