Saint-Émilion

Saint-Émilion is a commune in the Gironde, in the heart of the Libournais and set among wine hills at the crossroads of Bordeaux, Saintonge and Périgord. The medieval town and the vineyards around it were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, recognised for a long and still-living history of winemaking along with its Romanesque churches. The town is built on and into limestone, there is a church cut whole out of the rock beneath it, and the surrounding slopes can be walked between properties in an afternoon.