South-West France
Oceanic to Mediterranean-influenced
A patchwork of little-known appellations between Bordeaux and the Pyrenees, from Cahors's Malbec to Madiran's Tannat and Gaillac's local grapes.
Overview
About South-West France
The south-west is a broad area of separate appellations, from the Lot and Tarn valleys in the east to the Pyrenean foothills in the west. Many use grapes found nowhere else, such as Tannat, Négrette, Fer Servadou, Mauzac and the Manseng grapes of Jurançon, and it is also where Armagnac is made from Ugni Blanc and Colombard.
It lies next to Bordeaux, and shares some of its grapes, but its wines have a much more varied character.
Where is a grape grown?
Hover a marker to see what's grown there, and click it to open that place. On a touch screen, tap once to preview and again to open. Bigger markers have more grapes linked to them.
France
Shaded: Lot, Tarn, Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Lot-et-Garonne. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Oceanic to Mediterranean-influenced
Warm and fairly wet in the west, where the Atlantic dominates, and hotter and drier further east. Autumn is often long and dry, which favours late-ripening grapes.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Very varied: gravel terraces and limestone plateaux around the Lot, clay-limestone and pebbles in Madiran, and clay and limestone slopes in Gaillac.
Within South-West France
Appellations
Cahors
The Lot valley home of Malbec, known locally as Côt or Auxerrois, once so dark that its wine was called the black wine.
Gaillac
One of France's oldest vineyards, in the Tarn valley, built on local grapes such as Mauzac, Len de l'El, Duras and Braucol, and the home of the once-rare Prunelard.
Madiran
The Pyrenean-foothill home of Tannat, whose very tannic, deeply coloured wines were the reason micro-oxygenation was developed.
What's grown here
Grapes
Grapes linked to South-West France or to a place within it. Each grape's page links back here.