Lussac Saint-Émilion

The name of Lussac comes from Luccius, a very probable Latinization of the Gallic Luccios.

Long before the Christian era and that of the Gallo-Roman civilization, rites were celebrated here that would not have been disowned by Asterix, Obelix and the druid Panoramix, as testified by a Gallic megalith at the Picampeau mound, in the middle of an oak wood.

Legend or history has it that it was a man named Lucius or Lucaniacus, or Lucciacus, who, in Gallo-Roman times, planted the first vines on the surrounding hillsides. His domain Lucanius would have bequeathed its name and its first limits to the parish of Lussac. Numerous discoveries: syringes, amphorae, found by archaeologists or extracted during deep excavations, confirm this activity in this area.

In any case, it is during the 13th century that the vineyard, after having been sacked by the barbarian invasions and the wars, rises from its ashes.

Established in the 11th century, in Faize or Faise (commune of Artigues-de-Lussac), Cistercian monks cleared, cultivated and made known the wines of Lussac. Their abbot, who bore the title of baron de Lussac, was said to offer his best wines to his distinguished guests, notably the archbishops of Bordeaux. The latter, in turn, made them appreciated by their foreign guests passing through Bordeaux.

Nowadays, Lussac has kept this spirit of conviviality through its beautiful landscapes, its wines, and the affability of its inhabitants. To discover it, nothing is better than to go to the Maison du Vin de Saint-Émilion, then to go through the region by knowing how to take its time. Moreover, it is the people of Lussac who invented this marvelous annual festival, of international dimension, open to press cartoonists and humorists, whose name, in itself, is a whole program, a symbol: "Riréviné".

The terroir of Lussac is characterized by the diversity of its soils, harmoniously distributed between plateaus, hillsides and valleys.

To the south-east, the slopes are clay-limestone, similar to those of Saint-Émilion. To the west, there is a high gravelly to sandy-gravelly plateau that is not very extensive, while to the north, cold clayey soils or "terres glaises" dominate. To the east, the subsoil is composed of limestone banks that have provided excellent quarries of soft stone. To the northwest, there are a few stone quarries as well as ferruginous sands or clays.

Well drained and remarkably exposed, the wine-growing terroir of Lussac-Saint-Émilion lends itself perfectly to the production of quality wines.