Around the year 1050 the first wine brotherhoods were formed in France. Members were Knights appointed by the King. The Knights’ duties included administration of the royal vineyards and protecting the royal family and visiting dignitaries from being poisoned by those who coveted the royal throne and its wealth and power. Knighthood flourished until the French Revolution in 1793 when all the trappings of nobility, including wine brotherhoods, ceased to exist.
- In 1901, the French government passed the Kings’ Law, which reinstated the right to bestow titles of nobility once more. In 1929, Mr. Eugene Causse, editor and owner of La Journee Vinicole at Montpellier, southern France, traced the history of the original wine brotherhoods and established the Order Universal des Chevaliers du Cep, as the first new brotherhood. The Federation Internationale des Confreries Bachiques (FICB) was established in Paris as one of the two brotherhoods in France with the authority to charter brotherhoods under French law. The Federation established these Articles as basic precepts for all brotherhoods:
- To make better known and better appreciated the wine producing regions of the world and the products of their vineyards
- To bring honor and distinction to those who produce wine, those who sell it, and those who appreciate it.
- To make consumers aware that wine possesses patents of nobility and is a wholesome natural drink whose reasons for being have been established since early time.
- To see, study, and develop all appropriate means of undertaking publicity and promotion in order to focus the attention of consumers on wine as an international drink.
- To educate consumers on the entire range of wines which nature provides.
- To become acquainted with each brotherhood of the Federation.
- To attract interest of the general public and make itself newsworthy.
In the 1960s, international interest in wine brotherhoods began to grow. Since that time, over fifty wine brotherhoods have been established throughout the world including seventeen chapters in France alone.
The first brotherhood in the United States was established by Norman Gates in 1971 as the Universal Order of the Knights of the Vine. The order established chapters in fourteen states including California.