Château de Bois Brinçon
On the right bank of the Maine, as it flows through the centre of Angers, there sits a most remarkable building. I have walked past it many times, on the Boulevard Arago, perhaps on my way to a tasting there, or just exploring the town. I would on occasion stop to admire its ancient ecclesiastical grandeur, long before I ever realised there was a connection with the region’s wines. Although I should, perhaps, have guessed that there would be. When it comes to monasteries, abbeys, ancient hospitals (this building is one of the latter) or indeed anywhere else where pious men and women would tend to the sick and the infirm, wine would never be far away.
The building in question is the Hôpital Saint-Jean d’Angers, which was the location of the Hôtel-Dieu d’Angers, the town’s principal infirmary. It dates to 1175, when it was founded by Étienne de Marsay (1130 – 1190), the Sénéchal d’Anjou and treasurer to the Plantagenet Henry II. It was Henry himself, King of England and Duke of Anjou, who asked Étienne de Marsay to build the hospital as atonement for the murder of Thomas Beckett (c.1118 – 1170), Archbishop of Canterbury. And where is the wine connection? Well, as expected, healing hands need wine, and it was only a few decades later that the ecclesiasts established a vineyard, on the left bank of the Loire. The year was 1219, and the vines they planted constituted the beginning of Château de Bois Brinçon.
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