South West Region Red Wine

The South West wine region is one of the oldest in France. It has long been in the shadow of the vineyards of Bordeaux in the 20th century but, thanks to a few "elite" pioneer winegrowers in each appellation, the South West has made a place for itself on the shelves of cellars and wine merchants in France. . Just mention a bottle of Châteaux Montus and Bouscassé by Alain Brumont in Madiran or, still in Madiran, Château Aydie, the Verhaeghe brothers from Château du Cèdre in Cahors, authors of the Cuvée Extra Libre, from the Burc du Château family. Pineraie, Luc and Francis Conti from Château la Tour des Gendres in Bergerac and their famous “La Gloire de mon Père”, Pécharmant from the Borderie family and many others…. To see the eyes of the best amateurs sparkle.

The South West offers a wide variety of red wine styles.

The South West is a very vast region with very varied climatic influences. The result is therefore a very wide variety of types of vineyards and therefore of red wines, sometimes each estate is a kind of "climat" in itself. This diversity is expressed through the different AOC, AOP and IGP. To illustrate our point about this great diversity of terroirs, imagine that no less than 5 major rivers contribute to this diversity of wines. We can mention certain binomials or trinomials such as: The Dordogne and the wines of Bergerac, the Lot and the wines of Cahors, The Garonne and the wines of Buzet and Marmandais, the Tarn and Gaillac, The Fronton located between the Tarn and the Garonne , the Adour and the wines of Béarn, the Gave de Pau and the Jurançon as well as the Irouléguy of the Basque Country and the Nive.

This diversity of red wine also has its origins in the use of grape varieties adapted to each terroir.

Great efforts have been made to re-establish historical grape varieties, some of these grape varieties are sometimes only used in the South West (Tannat, Braucol, Negrette, Duras, etc.) associated with more conventional grape varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon grape variety, Cabernet Franc grape variety, Syrah grape variety). The result is red wines, with lower yields, which favor the search for quality built around the use of indigenous grape varieties.

Some South West vineyards that produce red wine.

Bergerac, Pécharmant, Montravel, Côtes du Marmandais, Côtes de Duras, Cahors, Gaillac, Fronton, Madiran, Irouléguy. Aveyron is home to small, fairly confidential but not devoid of interest appellations such as Marcillac, the wines of Estaing Marcillac Even if the Côtes de Gascognes (UBY, Tariquet, etc.) mainly produce white wine, some talented producers in Gascony offer us great successes in red, such as the Duboscq Monplaisir.