Gaillac AOC () is an ''

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée In France, the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (, ; abbr. AOC ) is a label that identifies an agricultural product whose stages of production and processing are carried out in a defined geographical area – the ''terroir'' – and using ...

'' (AOC) in South West France in the département of Tarn, just north of

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

History

The region makes claims to be among the earliest

viticultural Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

centres of ancient

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, though possibly after those of

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

around

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

, with wine production established in early 1st century.winepros.com.au.

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

merchants transported wine to Bordeaux and Northern Europe down the Tarn, and vineyards soon followed in the valley. Archaeologists have found Roman pottery in Montans. The town of

Gaillac Gaillac (; ) is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France. It had in 2013 a population of 14,334 inhabitants. Its inhabitants are called Gaillacois. Geography Gaillac is a town situated between Toulouse, Albi and Montauban. It has ...

grew up around the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery of Saint Michael, in the Tenth Century. As elsewhere, vineyards flourished in the care of the monks, who needed wine for religious purposes. By 1253, Gaillac was exporting its wine to England again, when Henry III bought 20 barrels. In 1387, the

Counts of Toulouse The count of Toulouse (, ) was the ruler of county of Toulouse, Toulouse during the 8th to 13th centuries. Originating as vassals of the kingdom of the Franks, Frankish kings, the hereditary counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding ...

granted Gaillac the right to put a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

on the barrel in recognition of their wine, and ''le coq gaillacois'' continues in use as the town's emblem. King Francois I of France gave King Henry VIII 50 barrels of Gaillac red wine at the

Field of the Cloth of Gold The Field of the Cloth of Gold (, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English Pale of Calais, it was a ...

summit in 1520. Local lore in the region of Cunac claims that the gift came from the vineyard there. The town's fortunes declined through several centuries, and only started to recover in the years after the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Its white wines were awarded protected status in 1937 and the reds in 1970.

Wines

* The traditional red wines of the region are considered able to be kept for 8–10 years. They are made of the grape varieties

Cabernet Franc Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux (wine), Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, as in the Loire (wine), Loire's C ...

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...

, Duras, Fer Servadou or

Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse ...

. On the Gaillac terroir, the variety Fer Servadou is known as Braucol.

Rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the wine color, color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the Macerati ...

is made from the same grapes. * "Primeur" red wine is made for drinking young, it's a marketing scheme based on Beaujolais Nouveau. The template is followed so closely that primeur wines must be made from the

Gamay Gamay () is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire_Valley_(wine), Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as lon ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

and are released for sale on the third Thursday of November. * The white wines are made of Mauzac,

Sauvignon blanc Sauvignon blanc () is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the city of Bordeaux in France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an ind ...

or Muscadelle,

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 2011Ampélogra ...

and Ondenc, local grape varieties. Table wines,

dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a mea ...

s and

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While it is common to refer to this as champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that word for products exclusively produced in the Champagne ( ...

s are all made.

Production

The vineyards cover . The production is between 110 and 150,000 hl of red wine, 45–60,000 hl of white wine, and 20,000 hl of rosé.

Wineries

Renowned wineries include Domaine Croix des Marchands, Château Palvié, Domaine Barreau, Domaine Vayssette, Domaine d'Escausses, Château Clement Termes, Château de Saurs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaillac Aoc South West France AOCs

History

Wines

Production

Wineries

See also

References