Southwest France

Südwest-Frankreich
Translations into other languages are available for subscribers only.

The vineyards of this large region (Fr. Sud-Ouest) with around 160,000 hectares of vineyards are among the oldest in France. From a purely geographically and historically to the southwest of France all the territory between the eastern boundary forming the central massif (Massif Central) and the Atlantic coast is in the west to the south to the Pyrenees on the border with Spain. Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) described the Roman province conquered by him between the river Garonne and the Pyrenees for the first time as Aquitaine (Guyenne Fr.). Kaiser Charlemagne (742-814), it acquired one of the Frankish kingdom. After a varied history as an independent county, the cost of obtaining the Gascony and then under British rule from the mid-12th Century, the area until 1453 final to France. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Order of the cultivated wine here, with representatives of the Cistercian did deserve. The demand of the Dutch in the 17th Century after brandy and sweet wines influenced the style of wine. At this time, the name Haut-Pays (Upper Country - upriver from Bordeaux) are common. The wines were from here but for a long time in the shadow of Bordeaux. The wine was sold from the port of Bordeaux, and all other areas had to wait until the complete wine from Bordeaux was shipped.

It is the region of Southwest France aptly called "vine-museum", because nowhere else are there so many indigenous grape varieties such as this that are very old and some are increasingly cultivated again. These include the kinds Arrufiac , Baroque , Duras , Fer Servadou , Lauzet , Len de l'El , Mauzac , Manseng , Négrette and Tannat . These give the wines a distinct, typical note. But there are also the classic Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon represented. Probably the most common of the vast area is the Atlantic climate. There are a lot of moisture in the winter and spring, warm summers and long, sunny autumns. We distinguish the region into five major sections, which produce very different styles of wines with a distinctive character. In the center is the famous wine region of fire Armagnac Much older than the better-known Cognac . The north is the great range Bergerac dominated south is Cahors . To the east lies the historic Gaillac . And in the southwest corner at the edge of the Pyrenees are the two most famous areas Jurançon and Madiran . The main appellations are:

* Armagnac
* Bearn , Béarn-Belocq
* Bergerac , Côtes de Bergerac
* Blanquette de Limoux
* Buzet , Côtes de Buzet
* Cabardès , Cotes du Cabardès et de l'Orbiel
* Cahors
* Charentais (Vin de pays)
* Comte Tolosan (Vin de pays)
* Coteaux du Quercy
* Cotes de Gascogne (Vin de pays)
* Côtes de Duras
* Côtes de Millau
* Côtes de Saint-Mont
* Cotes du Brulhois
* Cotes du Marmandais
* Côtes du Tarn (Vin de pays)
* Fronton - By 2004 Cotes du Frontonnais
* Gaillac , Gaillac Doux Gaillac Méthode Gaillacoise, Premieres Cotes Gaillac
* Irouléguy
* Jurançon
* Lavilledieu (IGP)
* Madiran
* Marcillac
* Monbazillac
* Montravel , Côtes de Montravel, skin Montravel
* Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh
* Pécharmant
* Rosette
* Saussignac
* Terroirs Landais (Vin de pays)
* Tursan
* Vins d'Entraygues et du Fel
* Vins d'Estaing