Collioure is a very small appellation in the Roussillon region (also known as French Catalonia) in southeastern France, near the border with Spain on the Mediterranean coast, about 30 kilometers southwest of Perpignan. It produces PowerfulDry red and white wines from France's southernmost Vineyard. The appellation comprises four communes, including the one from which it takes its name, plus Cerbère, Port-Vendres and Banyuls. Collioure wines are the dry table wines of the region, while those bearing the name Banyuls are the Sweet wines produced in exactly the same vineyards.
The proportion of grapes that become Collioure or Banyuls wine in a given year depends on the particular characteristics of the Vintage. Until recently, AOC Collioure wines were exclusively red or rosé wines. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre make up 60% of Collioure blends, with Carignan and Cinsaut making up the remaining 40% in varying proportions. Mourvèdre is not included in the blend of Banyuls wines, so all the Mourvèdre grapes grown here are destined for Collioure wines.
Grenache noir is a grape variety that originated in Spain. It produces a variety of grape specially used for the elaboration of wine. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by medium to large bunches, and grapes of medium size. Grenache noir can be found in many vineyards: South West, Cognac, Bordeaux, Provence & Corsica, Languedoc & Roussillon, Rhone Valley, Loire Valley, Savoie & Bugey, Beaujolais.
The Roussillon is home to a range of wine styles, at varying price points. Sweet fortified wines (vin doux naturel) used to dominate production, with still dry wines (vin sec) in the minority. In the last 30 years, however, this has completely changed, and vin sec now makes up the majority (80%) of the Roussillon’s output. The recent Wines of Roussillon tasting, held in London, not only highlighted many good quality dry wines being produced, but also cemented the idea that Roussillon whites are ...
The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...
Many wine styles can seem perplexing at first: imagine the first bottle of Barolo if you only know Barossa Shiraz, or the first bottle of Jura Savagnin if you were brought up on California Chardonnay. With time, thought and repeated tasting, though, comes understanding. You learn each wine’s syntax and lexicon, its hints and inferences. You grasp the ways in which each style communicates. Its beauty dawns, then grows. Rosé wine sales grew 23% worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Its fuel has come fr ...
