An overview of TERRASSES DU LARZAC

There is a magical moment when you are driving south down the A75 motorway which goes through the centre of France, past the city of Clermont Ferrand and the volcanic peaks of the Massif Central.

- Rosemary George

After you have crossed the dramatic Millau bridge and the plateau of the Larzac, and you emerge from a tunnel at the Pas de l’Escalette, you almost imagine that you can see a silvery line in the far distance that is the Mediterranean. The temperature has risen by at least 3°C and the first vines of the Languedoc are at your feet. They are part of the Terrasses du Larzac, the most northerly and coolest vineyards of the Languedoc. If you think of the Languedoc as forming an amphitheatre around the Mediterranean, this is Upper Circle or Balcony of the theatre, that is furthest from the sea.

It is an area that has attracted enormous interest over the last 20 years. In my book, “The Wines of the South of France”, published in 2001, I gave it little more than a cursory mention, merely acknowledging its existence as a possible new addition to the pyramid of Languedoc appellations, for which the simple appellation Languedoc, which covers Roussillon as well as Languedoc, forms the base. Essentially a more distinctive name was needed for villages that had once been part of the smaller and now defunct appellation Coteaux du Languedoc. There were pioneering wine growers such as Olivier Jullien at Mas Jullien, and his father at Cal Demoura, Château de Jonquières and Mas Chimères, followed by the likes of Mas des Brousses and Domaine Montcalmès.