South West France

Question 1

History and Trade- South West France

Answer 1

Significant Bordeaux influence on varieties and wine styles. Proximity to Bordeaux limits its trade.
Production of Bordeaux style reds, dry and sweet white with good price to quality ratio.
Major advances in wine tech and enthusiasm of growers.
Large range if wines grown, many local grape varieties as well as international varieties.

Question 2

Bergerac AC

Answer 2

East to Entre- Deux- Mers, similar climate to Bordeaux with less maritime influence. Red and White wines produced from same varieties grown in Bordeaux.

Question 3

Monbazillac AC, Saussignac AC and Haut- Montavel AC

Answer 3

Produce great botrytised sweet wines.

Question 4

Buzet AC

Answer 4

High up the Garonne valley. Predominately red. Local co-op cellar the most important producer.

Question 5

Galliac AC

Answer 5

Historically important wine region with a diverse range of styles. Crisp dry white blends from Sauvignon, Semillon and local grapes Mauzac and Len de i’el. Sweet wines can be produced from Ondenc as well as Mauzac and Len de i’el. Spicy, structured reds from Duras and Braucol

Question 6

Cahors AC

Answer 6

Upper valley of the Lot. Tannic and long lasting. Lots of different styles (depends on soil). Most important grape is Auxerrois (Malbec) which needs to account for 70% of the vineyard area. Merlot and Tannat also grown. Aged in oak, deep colour, dark berry fruits. When mature develops cedar and earth.

Question 7

Madiran AC

Answer 7

Sth of Armagnac. Tannat produces full- bodied brambly red wine. Incorporates two Vin de Pays: Vin de Pays Cotes des Gascogne and Vin de Pays du Gers. Aromatic, crisp whites from Armagnac varieties.

Question 8

Jurancon AC

Answer 8

Sweet wines from Petit Manning and Gros Manseng. Jurancon Sec AC is for dry wines from the same varieties.

Question 9

Fronton AC

Answer 9

Nth of Toulouse. Mainly red wines from local variety Negrette, this must make 50-70% of the appellations red. Small amount of white made from Mauzac.

Question 10

VdP du Comte Tolosan

Answer 10

The VdP that covers the whole South West France. More commonly seen as the departmental VdP du Gers and VdP des Cotes de Gascogne (which serves the Armagnac region). Mainly crisp, fresh, easy drinking whites from Colombard, Gros Manning, Ugni Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay

Question 11

Gascony

Answer 11

Proud region in south west france which today comprises armagnac country and such wines as madiran and jurançon. Its name appears on labels of the highly successful igp Côtes de Gascogne. In the Middle Ages it was incorporated into Aquitaine and was therefore, like bordeaux, under English rule for nearly 300 years from the middle of the 12th century.

Question 12

Bergerac

Answer 12

• Produces mainly red, but also dry and sweet white, and rosé wines in the image of bordeaux to the immediate west of the region (usually cheaper).
• Named after town at centre on the River dordogne, principal appellation of the Dordogne département.
• Lacking distinctions other than touristic (and gastronomic; Périgord is the home of the truffle), has long been in the shadow Bordeaux’s more serious wine reputation,
• Climate: somewhere between maritime and continental, but overripeness is a rare characteristic of Bergerac grapes and wines.
• Soils alluvial silt to clay and, on the higher terraces, limestone.
• Monbazillac on the left bank of the river is making more and more good-quality botrytized wine.
• Montravel on the right bank makes lightish dry and sweet white wines in the west of the region.
• Both appellations created in 1930s just after the creation of the Bergerac appellation. pécharmant won its own red wine appellation in 1946, as did the almost extinct sweet wine appellation of rosette, while the saussignac sweet white wine appellation was created in 1982.
• Many producers choose to sell their wines simply as Bergerac.
• Vines grown are the classic Bordeaux varieties: Cabernets and Merlot for red wines, and Sauvignon, Sémillon, and Muscadelle for whites. Sémillon is still the most planted light-skinned variety, Merlot the most popular grape for the red wines, which constitute the majority of production.
• The most common form of Bergerac is as a still red wine generally very similar to red bordeaux aoc.
• About a quarter of all white wine is sweet, made mainly from Sémillon, and sold as Côtes de Bergerac Mœlleux.

Question 13

Cahors

Answer 13

• Shrinking wine region in south west france, producing exclusively red wine, dependent on the malbec or Cot grape.
• In the 1980s and 1990s, benefited from considerable inward investment and since then has pinned hopes on Argentina’s success with Malbec.
• The River Lot provided an ideal trade route from the town of Cahors to the markets of northern Europe via the garonne and Bordeaux, and Cahors was making wines noted for their colour and body from at least the early Middle Ages.
• Influenced by the Mediterranean as well as by the Atlantic, and, winters are rather colder than in Bordeaux, the wines tend to be more concentrated.
• In the early 19th century were famed as the ‘black wines of Cahors’. (Such was Cahors’s international renown in the 19th century that imitation ‘Cahors’ was made by at least one of the Russian model wineries in the crimea.) A method of making the wines even blacker had been adopted whereby a portion of the grape juice was boiled to concentrate its colour and fermentable sugars.
• Arrival of the railways also gave the populous north ready access to the cheap and plentiful wines of the languedoc.
• Cahors fell into decline. The establishment of the Caves d’Olt co-operative at Parnac in 1947 marked the modest beginning of a new era during which the proportion of noble grape varieties and the incidence of good winemaking equipment and technology have steadily increased so that by the late 1990s more than 4,000 ha of vines were producing Cahors, awarded full appellation contrôlée status in 1971—although this total had dropped to below 3,400 ha by 2011.
• Vines for Cahors may be planted either on the notably thin topsoil of the arid, limestone plateau, the causses, or on the sand and gravel terraces between the plateau and the river, the coteaux.
• The notorious winter freeze of 1956 had a marked effect on the Cahors vignoble and provided a clean slate at an appropriate moment in the appellation’s evolution.
• The appellation rules stipulate at least 70% Malbec, supplemented by the tannic tannat and/or the supple merlot.
• Cahors is exceptional among the important south west French appellations in that neither Cabernet vine is allowed.
• Maceration times are a genuine variable and can have a considerable effect on wine style, as of course does barrel maturation.

Question 14

Jurancon

Answer 14

Is a name closely associated with south west france, of a distinguished white wine both dry (Jurançon Sec) and sweet (labelled simply Jurançon), of a relatively important, if undistinguished, dark-berried vine variety, and of an entirely unimportant light-berried vine.

Question 15

Jurancon- The Wine

Answer 15

• This fashionable, tangy, distinctive white wine has been celebrated and fiercely protected since the Middle Ages, and Jurançon one the earliest appellations contrôlées.
• In the 14th century, the parliament of navarra introduced the concept of a cru by identifying and valuing specific favoured vineyard sites.
• Principal varieties are the indigenous petit manseng and gros manseng, but the dry version may include up to 50% made up of other local varieties petit courbu, courbu, Camaralet de Lasseube, and Lauzet.
• Spring frosts are such a threat that many vines are espalier trained, but the Atlantic influence ensures sufficient rainfall.
• Mixture of limestone, sand, clay, and stones are protected by the Midi d’Ossau mountain.
• Gros Manseng is chiefly responsible for Jurançon Sec, the more common dry but strongly flavoured version of this wine, for which yields of 60 hl/ha (3.4 tons/acre) are allowed.
• Petit Manseng, with its small, thick-skinned berries, is ideal for the production of Jurançon’s real speciality, long-living, relatively inexpensive sweet Jurançon made from grapes partially dried on the vine which in some years may not be harvested until December
• If several tries are made through the vineyard (two are mandatory), the results may be bottled separately. oak is used to increasing effect. These moelleux wines, whose green tinge seems to deepen with age, serve well as aperitifs and with a wide range of foods.

Question 16

Jurancon- The Vine Varieties

Answer 16

Vines called Jurançon have in their time been cultivated in practically every region of south west France, other than Jurançon itself. The dark-berried version Jurançon Noir was once the high-yielding aramon-like workhorse of this part of France and 567 ha/1,400 acres were still in production in 2011, mainly in Gers and Tarn. Jurançon Blanc was once quite widely planted for armagnac prduction but is nearly extinct.

Question 17

Fer

Answer 17

alias Fer Servadou (and many other aliases), is a characterful, tannic black grape variety traditionally encouraged in a wide range of the sturdy red wines of south west france. In madiran, where it is often called Pinenc, it is a distinctly minor ingredient, alongside Tannat and the two Cabernets. In gaillac, where it is known as Brocol or Braucol, it has overtaken duras to become the dominant variety. It is technically allowed into wines as far north as Bergerac, but today it is particularly important to the red wines of the Aveyron département, entraygues, estaing, and the defiantly smoky, rustic marcillac. The iron-hardness of the name refers to the vine’s wood rather than the resulting wine, although it is well coloured, concentrated, and interestingly scented. Fer has also been invited to join the already crowded party of varieties permitted in cabardès. French plantings had grown to 1,569 ha/3,875 acres by 2011 and dna profiling has shown it to be a progenitor of carmenère.

Question 18

Haut Pays

Answer 18

French term meaning ‘high country’ which was used in the Middle Ages to describe the area upstream of bordeaux which produced wines (and had done for longer than Bordeaux since at the beginning of the Christian era winemaking spread north west from Narbonne towards the Atlantic). This included gaillac, bergerac, Quercy (modern cahors), and Nérac (buzet). The more dependable climate here often produced wines stronger than the light, thin wines then made in the Bordeaux region itself and were seen as a serious commercial threat. The port of Bordeaux penalized them by taxing them heavily and barring them from the port until the region had exported its own wines.

Question 19

Pecharmant

Answer 19

Red wine appellation for bordeaux blends within the bergerac district in south west france. A steady 400 ha/1,000 acres of vines were dedicated to the appellation in 2012, planted on gravelly, south-facing slopes just east of the town of Bergerac. The wines are some of Périgord’s longest-lived reds but little of it escapes the region, however. Within the zone, some sweet white wine is made in the much smaller rosette appellation.

Question 20

Rosette

Answer 20

Very limited sweet white wine appellation just north of Bergerac in south west france. It includes some of the pécharmant zone. Just 23 ha planted with the Bordeaux varieties were in production in 2012. Rosette is also the name of an old french hybrid, also known as Siebel 1000, which once produced pale red wines in New York state.

Question 21

Saussignac

Answer 21

Very small (25 ha in 2012) sweet white wine appellation in south west france. It lies within the bergerac district to the west of Monbazillac and produces sweet white wines, from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, and some particularly successful Muscadelle grapes. Since the mid 1990s, the appellation has become an enclave of great sweet winemaking, led by Clos d’Yvigne and Domaine de Richard. In 2004, appellation laws were strengthened to insist on manual picking and completely natural sweetness, generally due to botrytis.

Question 22

Montravel

Answer 22

Dry white and some red wine appellation of 144 ha/356 acres of vineyard in 2012 in the extreme west of the bergerac district in south west france just over the boundary of the gironde département with the dordogne, and thus close to Bordeaux’s Côtes de francs, which also has a tradition of sweet white winemaking. Each of Sémillon and the two Sauvignons must make up at least a quarter of the blend. Muscadelle is also approved. The overall quality of these dry wines increased considerably in the late 1980s, with a certain amount of barrel maturation having been introduced, but they are chiefly a local phenomenon. The appellations Côtes de Montravel and Haut-Montravel are used for small quantities of sweet wines (from 36 and 8 ha respectively in 2012), with the former generally denoting a moelleux and the latter, a description rarely used, for an even sweeter version. The appellation was extended in 2001 to red wines made from Bordeaux grape varieties, mainly Merlot.

Question 23

Irouleguy

Answer 23

• Unique, isolated French wine appellation in basque country.
• Language and lettering used on labels here are distinctively Basque.
• Although there were 470 ha/1,160 acres of vines in 1906, vines were almost abandoned until the late 20th century. - Appellation contrôlée granted in 1970, and by the early 1990s, the vineyard area was once again expanding.
• 232 ha of scattered vineyards
• Soils: including limestone, schist, red clay, and gravel were cultivated by 2012 by about 60 vigneron in rolling pastoral countryside in the far western Pyrenees, up to more than 400 m/1,300 ft above sea level, under heavy -
• Atlantic climatic influence in the west.
• Tannat grape and/or Cabernet Franc must constitute between 50 and 90% of the light, crisp reds with the rest made up of Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Indigenous varieties courbu, petit courbu, gros manseng, and petit manseng. The fragrant, relatively substantial rosé is mostly Tannat with the two Cabernets but up to 10% of the white grapes may also be included.

Question 24

South West (134,393 acres / 50,341 hectares)

Answer 24

Malbec: Despite the region’s large size, the wines of South West are still being discovered outside of France. One notable find is Cahors, which is the origin place of Malbec. Wines are medium-bodied with notes of cherries and plums, with softer tannins and subtle notes of dried leaves.

Colombard, Ugni Blanc, and Gros Manseng blends: A great value white wine to seek out from the South West includes the grapes of Colombard and Ugni Blanc. Whites offer juicy-but-crisp notes of green melon, lemongrass, and apple, with a long tingly finish. Seek out Gascogne Blanc.

Tannat: A rare wine with exceptionally bold tannins that’s said to be the wine of longevity. Wines offer black currant, licorice, and smoke, with drying tannins. Seek out Irouleguy and Madiran.

Question 25

Monbazillac

Answer 25

• Increasingly serious sweet white wine appellation within the bergerac district in south-west France immediately south of the town of Bergerac on the left bank of the dordogne.
• Monbazillac, long history of sweet wine production, which here seems to pre-date the influence of the dutch wine trade
• Made from Sémillon, Sauvignons Blanc and Gris, and, particularly successful here, Muscadelle grapes and the vineyards lie on the left bank of an important river close to its confluence with a small tributary, in this case the Gardonette.
• Favours autumn morning mists, development of noble rot, particularly on north-facing slopes, and increasing producers are willing to take the risks involved in trying to produce fully botrytized wines.
• Mechanical harvesting banned from 1993 and successive tries through the vineyard insisted upon.
• Maximum permitted yields: 40 hl/ha (2.3 tons/acre), as opposed to the 25 hl/ha in Sauternes, but in a good vintage such as 1996, the average yield in Monbazillac was 26 hl/ha (as opposed to Sauternes’ 22.5 hl/ha).
• Used to be simply a sweetened, heavy wine, sometimes redolent of sulfur dioxide, blended and bottled by a négociant.
• Since 1993, there has been a clear distinction between serious sweet Monbazillac and early-picked dry white wine which is sold as Bergerac Sec.

Question 26

Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh

Answer 26

defiantly gascon name for tangy white wines made in the madiran region mainly from a mixture of intensely local grape varieties courbu, petit courbu, gros manseng, and petit manseng. The deep yellow wine can be either dry or more probably sweet, depending on the vintage, and tastes like a slightly more alcoholic (thanks to Petit Courbu) version of jurançon, which is made further south. By 2012, 270 ha/667 acres were dedicated to this keenly priced wine, which may be picked as late as December. The sweet wines, made from passerillé grapes, can last ten years or so in bottle. The Plaimont co-operative has access to some excellent fruit.

Question 27

South West France

Answer 27

• Recognized region within france which incorporates all of the wine districts in the south western quarter of the country with the exception of bordeaux and Cognac.
• This includes: Bergerac, Monbazillac, Côtes de Duras, Cahors, Buzet, Fronton, and Gaillac, together with those made in gascony and basque country (St-Mont, Madiran, Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh, Jurançon, Béarn, and Irouléguy).
• Climate is heavily influenced by the Atlantic.
• Vine cultivated in the Roman era but winemaking was developed only under the medieval influence of monks and monasteries.
• The history of the first group of wines described above has been heavily influenced by the commercial muscle of protectionist Bordeaux.
• The hundred years war had an everlasting effect on their trading history, opening the door for the Dutch wine trade to take the place of once-powerful England.
• Similar encépagement of Bordeaux,
• Southern districts boasts exciting collections of indigenous varieties, including the likes of abouriou, arrufiac, baroque, courbu, duras, fer (Servadou), gros manseng, len de l’el, mauzac, négrette, petit courbu, petit manseng, and tannat.