Cotes de Gascony

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Vineyards of the Côtes de Gascogne near Castelnau-d'Auzan

Côtes de Gascogne is the name of a wine-growing region in Gascony . It mainly produces white country wine. The area is mainly in the Gers department , part of the French region of Occitania . The Côtes de Gascogne are classified as Vin de Pays and are produced in the Armagnac region . They are part of the Sud-Ouest region .

The regulation of September 13, 1968 differentiates between Vins de Pays and the simpler table wines , so-called Vins de Table . The issuance of the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée certificate for the Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne obliges producers to follow the strict guidelines adopted and determined in the ordinance of January 25, 1982.

Association of producers

The Syndicat des Producteurs de Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne was founded on March 15, 1979 and protects the interests of its members, draws up production regulations and checks production. The association currently has around 1400 wine farmers , 1300 of whom are members of the so-called caves coopératives (cooperative). There are also around 150 independently producing wine farmers.

production

With the permitted production volume of 830,000 hectoliters per year, Gers is the largest producer of white Vin de Pays in France . The production potential is more than 100 million bottles per year, 75% of which are destined for export.

In Gers, 91% of the production volume consists of white wine , 8% is red wine and 1% consists of rosé wine , which is very atypical for south-west France because red wine is mostly produced elsewhere.

Regulations

  • Only red, white and rosé wine .
  • Only wines from the defined growing area.

Grape varieties for red and rosé wine are:

Grape varieties for white wine are:

Production area

The Gers department near Marciac . In the background you can see the Pyrenees mountain range

The production area consists of

and is spread over three departments of Gers , Landes and Lot-et-Garonne .

Only grapes harvested in this area can be distilled into Armagnac or processed into a Vin de Pays with the designation of origin Vin de Pays Côtes de Gascogne or Floc de Gascogne .

The area coincides with the Armagnac production area.

The full AOC area consists of 15,000 hectares of vineyards.

The production area is mainly in the Gers, where almost two thirds (11,700 hectares) are used for vineyards, for the production of Côtes de Gascogne and Armagnac .

It was not until 2005 that the designation of origin was expanded to include the Armagnac vineyards in Bas-Armagnac and Armagnac-Ténarèze.

ground

The area consists of alluvial soils with clay and sand.

climate

The Atlantic still has influence across the Landes ; it is very wet in spring and sunny in the rest of the year.

Web links

literature