Tavel (wine region)

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The play of colors of the Tavel with its typical signet today

Tavel is a wine-growing region around the town of Tavel near the lower reaches of the Rhône between Nîmes and Châteauneuf-du-Pape . Since 1936 it has been classified as an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée . With 2700 hours of sunshine , it is one of the most favored wine regions in France. With its 933 hectares on an area of ​​1.5 km × 5.5 km, it is comparatively small. In addition, AOC Tavel is the only region on the Côtes du Rhône in which only grape varieties for rosé wine are grown. This is one of the best and most expensive roses in France. The yield is limited to 35–50 hl / ha, depending on the year .

location

Tavel is mainly grown west of the main town in the valley of Vallet de Malaven, which rises continuously to over 250 meters . The Malaven stream flows in a west-east direction. The neighboring areas of the neighboring communities Commune de Lirac in the north and Commune de Rochefort in the south are forested. The part to the east of the main town is criss-crossed by various traffic arteries and makes up less than half of the cultivated area. The districts of Campey, La Vaute, Torette, Romagnac, Le Vau el Clos, Roc Crispin et Malaven, La Vousière, Vaucroze, Vacquières, Cabanelle, Moulin, Vestides, Cameyre, Varcenies, Plaine de Vallongue, La Genestière extend from west to east et Foucadure, Tavelat les Oliviers, Bouvelles, Olivet, Blaise d'arbres, Bouvelles, Montézargues, Manissy, Roquautes, Palus, Garauyas, les Pres and Grand Jonc.

history

Viticulture has a millennia-old tradition, prehistoric grape presses and archaeologically verifiable remains of wine are evidence of this. From the 12th century, the Abbey of Saint-André de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon had operated and promoted viticulture.

The municipality has been part of the Côtes du Rhône region since 1731. From this time on, the barrel-wise shipping via the port in Roquemaure can be proven. A producers' association was founded in 1902, and by 1927 almost all producers were affiliated with 40 producers. On the initiative of their president, Baron Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarié (1890-1967), the owner of the Château Fortia in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the producers judicially determined their cultivation area, as Boiseaumarié did in 1923 in Châteauneuf-du-Pape had, the first wine-growing region in France to apply for the AOC. A court order was made for the Tavel on January 28, 1928 and legally established for May 17, 1936. In 1968, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1996 it was adapted to the needs.

Terroir

Prieuré de Montézargues Rosé

While the western half of the cultivation area corresponds to a typical, flat valley basin, the half east of the town of Tavel is orographically strongly structured: The valley of the Malaven narrows behind the town like a bottleneck and is crossed at this narrowest point by the A9 autoroute . The highway runs on a sediment that was formed at the end of the Mesozoic Era , i.e. in the Cretaceous Period . It consists mainly of limestone with marine sedimentation including fossils. Viticulture is mainly terraced here.

The soil types are correspondingly different: in the easternmost area there are alluvial soils , which originally come from the Rhône, but which were raised by up to 40–50 meters during the Earth's ages. Predominantly sandy soil conditions are found in the northeast near the municipality of Roquemaure, which correspond to the typical terroir , but bring lower hectare yields and were added as the last areas due to the Tavel success. On the south side, layers of clay dominate, which allow solid yields to be achieved, as they do not dry out as quickly in the case of longer-lasting mistral winds compared to other areas and produce very fruity wines. These low yield soils produce fresh wines. Loess-marl mixture predominates in the western half.

Technical specifications

On 933 ha with a density of 4000 and a hectare yield of 35–50 hl / ha, almost 45,000 hl per year are produced. The permitted grape varieties are Grenache , Cinsault , Syrah , Clairette Rose , Piquepoul Blanc , Calitor , Bourboulenc , Mourvèdre and Carignan . The minimum share in the wine to be produced is 15% each for Grenache and Cinsault, 10% for all other varieties, but not more than 60%, so that there are no single-variety wines in the Tavel, only cuvées. Furthermore, only wines with a maximum alcohol content of 13.5 % by volume are permitted .

About two thirds of production is consumed in France; the most important foreign markets are Belgium, Germany and the United States of America (22–16%), Scandinavia and Great Britain (14% and 10% respectively). Half of it is marketed in bulk and individual containers through the trade, just under a third leaves the producer's cellar through the consumer. The remainder goes to trade fairs or to dealers (negociants) who use the wine for other purposes - for example for brandy or for blending from other wine regions.

Web links

Commons : Tavel (wine region)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. René Engel: Vade-Mecum de l'Œnologue , Editions Maurice Ponsot, Paris 1959, p. 325
  2. Tavel.tm.fr ( Memento from May 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the story (fr.)
  3. Guy Barruol, Michèle Bois, Yann Codou, Marie-Pierre Estienne, Élizabeth Sauze: List des établissements religieux relevant de l'abbaye Saint-André du Xe au XIIIe siècle in: Guy Barruol, Roseline Bacon et Alain Gérard (editors): L 'abbaye de Saint-André de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, histoire, archeology, rayonnement, Actes du colloque interrégional tenu en 1999 à l'occasion du millénaire de la fondation de l'abbaye Saint-André de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon , edition Alpes de Lumières , No. 4, 2001, 448, ISSN  1254-9371 , ISBN 2-906162-54-X , p. 231.
  4. Auguste Moison, Henri Péladan: Tavel, la renaissance d'un cru , Uzes 1974, p 25

Coordinates: 44 ° 0 ′ 42 "  N , 4 ° 41 ′ 45"  E