Côtes du Roussillon is an appellation contrôlée for red, white and rosé wines from the Roussillon wine region in southern France. It covers the eastern half of the administrative district of the Pyrénées-Orientales, on the eastern edge of the Pyrenees. The western half of the Pyrenees-Orientales is simply too mountainous for effective viticulture. In the Côtes du Roussillon wine-growing area is the Aspres sub-region.
This corresponds roughly to the Aspres nature park, an area that forms the transition between the lower Pyrenees and the coastal plain of Roussillon below. Only red wines can claim the title Les Aspres, and to obtain it, they must comply with slightly stricter production restrictions than those in force for standard Côtes du Roussillon wines. The typical Côtes du Roussillon red wine is based on the classic Languedoc-Roussillon and southern Rhone Valley Grape varieties, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, perhaps with some support from their less favoured and slightly rustic cousin, Carignan. Wines from older vineyards may even include a touch of Cinsaut and perhaps even the little known Lledoner Pelut (thought to be a mutation of Grenache Noir).
Aligoté is an ancient Burgundian grape variety (it has different names depending on the region in which it is grown: griset blanc in Beaune, giboudot blanc in the Chalonnais or troyen blanc in the Aube), mainly used in the production of Bourgogne-Aligoté, Bouzeron and Crémant-de-Bourgogne.aligoté is a medium-fine white grape variety, quite productive, which gives clear, acidic, fresh and light white wines. An anecdote often says that it was a member of the clergy named Kir who gave it its letters of nobility by adding it to blackcurrant cream to prepare an aperitif.produced on more than 1,600 hectares in Burgundy, aligoté has also been exported. It is also cultivated in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Romania), California, Canada and Chile, representing more than 20,000 hectares in the world.
white wines from the region of Côtes du Roussillon go well with generally quite well with dishes of pasta, vegetarian or poultry such as recipes of spinach, smoked salmon and ricotta lasagne, broccoli and blue cheese quiche without pastry or genuine chicken tagine olive and lemon confit tagine with argan oil.
On the nose in the region of Côtes du Roussillon often reveals types of flavors of oaky, non oak or earth and sometimes also flavors of oak, red fruit or black fruit. In the mouth in the region of Côtes du Roussillon is a powerful with a nice freshness.
