(Travel&Leisure) - Winemakers and wine professionals in Bordeaux routinely begin the history of this year’s harvest with an anecdote from a few hundred years ago. Speaking of this season’s grapes, they gesture toward the past while planning for their future vintages.

Prince Robert of Luxembourg, president and CEO of Domaine Clarence Dillon that includes the renowned Chateau Haut-Brion, began with the 1st century when telling the story of his vineyard. Romans planted the first grapes at Haut-Brion nearly two millennia ago and the vineyard began to take its present shape as early as the 16th century, according to Robert.

History lives through the grapes that are harvested each fall in this French region, as the vintners begin working on wines that won’t be ready for at least a few years.

“If you put the focus on the terroir and you really want that to be expressed in the wine, that gives it so much more depth. And that’s what excites me about great French wines in general,” Prince Robert told Travel + Leisure.