The Monks Who Mapped Burgundy by Foot

“You drew vineyard maps by hand?”
“Just patience, prayer, and 800 harvests.”

You might drop a pin.
They dropped centuries of devotion.

Long before climate data and drone footage, Cistercian monks were walking the land — again and again — tasting, observing, sketching, praying, and tracking the tiniest shifts in soil, slope, and sun.

They didn’t call it terroir.
They called it practice.
And they didn’t do it for Instagram.
They did it for God — and the grape.

📚 Comic Recap:
“Wait… monks invented vineyard zoning?”
Yes. Long robes. Long walks. Long vision.

They were the ones who first noticed:
“This plot ripens earlier.”
“This slope holds water.”
“This grape tastes different over here.”

And with that, vineyard zoning was born — centuries before the term even existed.

These monks — especially the Cistercians in Burgundy — documented everything.
From hand-drawn maps to prayer journals with fermentation notes, their wine work was equal parts spiritual devotion and natural science.

They turned monasteries into wine labs.
And their legacy?
Still printed on Burgundy wine labels today.

🍷 Closing Line:
They didn’t rush the process.
They walked it.
One vine. One map. One holy glass at a time.