The region of Bordeaux, together with Burgundy, is probably one of the most famous French wine-growing regions, both of which compete for the first place of the qualitatively "best wines". The city of the same name is the capital of the Gironde département with the estuary of the same name in southwest France and is considered one of the most beautiful wine cities in the world. The Greek historian Strabo (63 B.C.-28 A.D.) writes that when he visited "Burdigala" around 20 A.D. he would not have found any viticulture. However, this is not attested by his colleague Pliny the Elder (23-79) a few decades later. This means that the Romans founded viticulture here around 50 AD. Today's Bordeaux region belonged to England for 300 years (1154-1453) and during this time viticulture took off with a significant boom due to the wine trade to England and Flanders. This led to the establishment of large trading houses and the historically important Bordeaux wine trade.