Wine region · France
Roussillon
Catalan France against the Pyrenees, known for concentrated old-vine Grenache and for fortified Vins Doux Naturels.
About Roussillon
Roussillon is hotter and drier than the Languedoc, with very low yields from old bush-vine Grenache and Carignan producing dense, powerful reds.
Banyuls and Maury are Vins Doux Naturels — fermentation is arrested by adding grape spirit, leaving sweetness and raising alcohol. Banyuls is one of the few wines that genuinely works with chocolate.
No authority delimits this name or attaches rules to it. A country’s major wine division, usually containing appellations or sub-regions beneath it. That does not make it less real or less useful — it means nothing legal follows from it, and you will not generally find it on a label as a controlled designation.
Grapes
Wines from here
Soil and geology
Schist, granite and limestone on steep, dry, low-yielding terraces.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
Places within it
- Banyuls — Fortified sweet Grenache from terraces falling into the sea at the Spanish border — France’s answer to Port, and the classic chocolate wine.
- Côtes du Roussillon Villages — The senior red appellation of French Catalonia, on schist and granite in the Pyrenean foothills.
- Maury — An inland Roussillon appellation making both fortified sweet Grenache and, since 2011, dry red wine.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Vin Doux Naturel
Serve at 12–16°C (cellar cool).
Try with chocolate, dark chocolate or chocolate cake.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France