Côtes de Gascogne is a wine-growing district in Gascony producing principally white wine. It is mainly located in the

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

of the Gers in the former

Midi-Pyrénées Midi-Pyrénées (; oc, Miègjorn-Pirenèus or ; es, Mediodía-Pirineos) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by ar ...

region (now part of the Occitanie region), and it belongs to the wine region South West France. The designation Côtes de Gascogne is used for a ''

Vin de Pays ''Vin de pays'' (, "country wine") was a French wine classification that was above the '' vin de table'' classification, but below the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) classification and below the former ''vin délimité de qualité s ...

'' ("country wine") produced in the

Armagnac Armagnac (, ) is a distinctive kind of brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc, traditionally ...

area. The decree of 13 September 1968 created the difference between a ''Vin de Pays'' and simpler table wine, the so-called ''

Vin de table Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not forti ...

''. The designation ''Côtes de Gascogne'' obliges the producers to respect the stricter rules and production standards, which were adopted with the decree of 25 January 1982.

Association of producers

The Association of Producers of the ''Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne'' was founded on 15 March 1979. It protects the interests of the members, determines the production standards and ensures respect of these rules. The association counts on this moment approximately 1,400 wine farmers. Of them, 1,300 are members of cooperative cellars, the so-called ''caves coopératives''. The most famous producers are Château de Tariquet, Domaine de Joÿ, Plaimont, Uby... There are also 150 independently working wine farmers, who produce their wines themselves.

Production

With a permitted production quantity of 830,000 hectoliters per year, the Gers is France's largest producer of white ''Vin de Pays'', with a production potential of more than 100 million bottles per year, of which 75% are for export. In the Gers, the production volumes are more or less as follows: 91% white wine, 8% red and 1% rosé wine. This is very atypical for the southwest of France, because in neighbouring departments mainly red wine is produced.

Rules for wine

There are

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

, rosé and white wine. Wines are produced only from the defined area. The types of grapes for red and rosé wine are

Abouriou Abouriou (French spelling of Occitan ''aboriu'', early) is a red French wine grape variety grown primarily in Southwest France and, in small quantities, California. It is a blending grape that, along with Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Fer ...

, Merlot, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Duras,

Fer Fer (also known as Fer Servadou, Pinenc, Mansois and several other synonyms) is a red French wine grape variety that is grown primarily in South West France and is most notable for its role in the ''Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée'' (AOC) ...

Négrette Négrette is a dark red wine grape grown primarily in South West France in the region between Albi and Toulouse. Wine regions The principal appellation using this variety, Côtes du Frontonnais (red and rosé), requires that 50% to 70% of the ...

, Portugias bleu,

Malbec Malbec () is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. In France, plantations of Malbec are n ...

and

Tannat Tannat is a red wine grape, historically grown in South West France in the Madiran AOC, and is now one of the most prominent grapes in Uruguay, where it is considered the "national grape". Tannat is also grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazi ...

. The types of grapes for white wine are

Colombard Colombard (also known as French Colombard in North America) is a white French wine grape variety that is the offspring of Chenin blanc and Gouais blanc.winepros.com.au. This makes the grape the sibling of the Armagnac Meslier-Saint-François ...

Petit Manseng Petit Manseng (sometimes translated: Small Manseng, rarely "Little Manseng") is a white wine grape variety that is grown primarily in South West France. It produces the highest quality wine of any grape in the Manseng family. The name is deriv ...

Gros Manseng Gros Manseng (sometimes translated: Large Manseng, rarely "Big Manseng") is a white wine grape variety that is grown primarily in South West France, and is part of the Manseng family. It produces dry wines in the Jurançon and Béarn regions ...

Len de l'El Len de l'El (various spellings have been reported:Institut Français de la Vigne et du Vin Sud-OuesLen de l'El B ou Loin de l'Oeil"'' (French). Accessed: 23 October 2011Oxford Companion to Wine'Gaillac entry"'' Accessed: 6 February 2011Ampélog ...

, Sauvignon blanc,

Sémillon Sémillon is a golden-skinned grape used to make dry and sweet white wines, mostly in France and Australia. Its thin skin and susceptibility to botrytis make it dominate the sweet wine region Sauternes AOC and Barsac AOC. History The Sémil ...

Muscadelle Muscadelle is a white wine grape variety. It has a simple aroma of grape juice and raisins like grapes of the Muscat family of grapes, but it is unrelated. DNA analysis has indicated that Muscadelle is a cross between Gouais blanc and an unid ...

and Ugni blanc.

Production region

The ''Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée''-région Côtes de Gascogne,

and

Floc de Gascogne The Floc de Gascogne is a regional apéritif from the Côtes de Gascogne and Armagnac regions of Sud-Ouest wine region of France. It is a ''vin de liqueur'' fortified with armagnac, the local brandy. It has had '' Appellation d'origine contr� ...

(a local aperitif) are identical. The three Armagnac sub-regions

Armagnac-Ténarèze Armagnac-Ténarèze is one of the three ''terroirs'' (plantation areas) in the Armagnac region of France where grapes for the distillation of the Armagnac eau-de-vie can be cultivated. This area lies between Bas-Armagnac and Haut-Armagnac, coveri ...

Bas-Armagnac Bas-Armagnac is one of the three terroir, plantation areas in the Armagnac (region), Armagnac area of France where grapes for the distillation of the Armagnac (drink), Armagnac eau-de-vie can be cultivated. It extends over the Landes (department), ...

and Haut-Armagnac form in a way the Côtes de Gascogne. The region is mainly in the Gers where two thirds of the vineyards, nearly 12 thousand hectares are used for the production of the Côtes de Gascogne wines. In Gers the cantons: Auch, Cazaubon, Condom,

Fleurance Fleurance (; oc, Florença) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and terr ...

, Jegun,

Lectoure Lectoure (; Gascon: ''Leitora'' ) is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is located north of Auch, the capital of the department, south of Agen and approximately northwest of Toulouse. Geogr ...

, Montesquiou,

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

Nogaro Nogaro (; Gascon: ''Nogaròu'') is a commune in the Gers department, Southwestern France. It is the site of a distillery of Armagnac brandy. Geography The commune is bordered by six other communes: Caupenne-d'Armagnac to the northwest, Sa ...

Riscle Riscle (; Gascon: ''Riscla'') is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, the former commune Cannet was merged into Riscle.Plaisance, Aignan, Valence-sur-Baïse,

Vic-Fezensac Vic-Fezensac (; Gascon: ''Vic en Fesensac''; Occitan: ''Vic de Fesensac'') is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. In 2017, it had a population of 3,474. Geography Localisation Vic-Fezensa ...

. The

Appellation d'origine contrôlée An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical bou ...

was in 2005 extended with the

vineyards lying in twenty-five municipalities in the Bas-Armagnac which are in the department Landes and fourteen other municipalities in the Armagnac-Ténarèze which are in

Lot-et-Garonne Lot-et-Garonne (, oc, Òlt e Garona) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019.Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

although far away behind Les Landes still has influence, further spring is rather wet and it is sunny in the rest of the year.

References

External links

Syndicat des Côtes de Gascogne

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotes De Gascogne Wine regions of France Pyrenees