Description

This is the wine-growing area that has made the greatest progress in terms of quality over the past 30 to 40 years, morphing from coarse reds into a multitude of quality wines with very distinctive characteristics. For some time now, the whites have also kept pace with the reds. There are 245,000 hectares of vineyards, producing 1,245,000 hl of wine, mainly reds. The region is situated between the Massif Central, the Corbières and the Mediterranean, covering a wide range of ‘terroirs’ and appellations. There’s shale, sandstone, pebbles, limestone and alluvial deposits. The climate is very much mediterranean, with hot summers and irregular and poorly distributed rainfall. The grape types currently planted, apart from carignan, often date from after the Second World War, in line with the subsoil. This makes for complex, exciting wines. Reflecting this dynamism, many of the vignerons produce wines that are non-AOC (vins de pays, table wines, etc.) as they keep on searching for quality and originality. The Languedoc has 11 AOCs, the main ones of which are Coteaux du Languedoc, Saint-Chinian, Faugères, Minervois, Minervois-la-Livinière, Fitou, Corbières, Limoux and so on.