2011 Pays d'Oc IGP Grenache, Languedoc, France
One of the six major regional IGP areas for the production of local wines in France. The other five are Atlantique, Comtés Rhodaniens, Comté Tolosan, Méditerranée and Val de Loire. Situated deep in the south-east of the country on the Mediterranean, it includes the double region of Languedoc-Roussillon and the right-hand part of the southern Rhône in the five departments of Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère (only 6 communes) and Pyrénées-Orientales. The name "oc" in the Occitan...
The northern part of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the deep south of France on the Mediterranean coast. From north to southwest it comprises the three départements of Gard, Hérault and Aude. The much smaller Roussillon in the Département Pyrénées-Orientales is connected to the west, the wine-growing regions Provence and Rhône to the east. The name is derived from "langue d'oc", which means "language of the Oc" (oc = yes). This Occitan language was spoken in the Middle Ages south of the Loire; north of the Loire they spoke...
France is a relatively young wine-growing country compared to Greece and Italy. The first vines were brought in the 6th century BC by the Greeks, who founded Massalia (lat. Massillia = Marseille) in the southwest on the Mediterranean coast. At this time, the land that was later called Gaul by the Romans was inhabited by the Celts. A brisk trade developed and the Greeks covered the demand. When they immigrated to the Po Valley in the 5th century, they got to know Italian wine and began to import it. The later French consumed wine for a long time before they started to cultivate it themselves on a large scale. The conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar...
