History

St. Jacques would appear to have been founded in or before the Roman era, when an agricultural villa was built.  Probably abandoned to or over-run by the Visigoths in the 7-8th Century (a tomb from this era has been found in one of the vineyards), it later appears to have become a priory on a St Jacques de Compostelle route.

A chapel, probably dating from the C10th century, still dominates the property and is to be restored.

In the 18-19th Century, the domain echoed to the noise and activity of a self-sufficient farm, focusing probably on wheat, as witnessed by its old windmill (now transformed into holiday accommodation).  In the 19-20th Century, the property concentrated on wine production, as the Languedoc had emerged as one of the principal wine-producing areas of France, notably during most of the 19th Century.  Phylloxera then stuck during the 1870s.  However, following replanting, the establishment of the co-operative movement and continual rise in domestic wine consumption, the area flourished again – but under the stimulus for quantity, not quality.  A metamorphosis to quality accurred from the mid-20th Century and  when A.O.C. status was gained quite recently in 1985 for the Minervois, an area which Clive Coates describes as ”one of the most rewarding areas in the Midi for inexpensive but interesting wines”.