The Rise…

The vineyards were first planted along the Moselle River by the Romans, and the vines prospered particularly well in the Côtes de Toul.  Under the influence, successively,  of Charlemagne, the Dukes of Lorraine and the Bishops of  Toul, the wines were distributed nearly all over Europe. The vineyard reached peak production levels in the mid-19th century with about 11,000 hectares (over 30,000 acres) of grape vines in the Toul region.

…and the Fall

The first  fifty years of the twentieth century were almost fatal to the region. Phylloxera, two world wars, the loss of the market in the Champagne region, and the exodus from the rural area nearly brought two thousand years of local history to an end.
By 1950, there were only 30 hectares (75 acres) of vineyards left on the hills around Toul.