Collioure AOC
Encyclopedia
Collioure is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
(AOC) for French wine
s situated around the town of Collioure
in the Roussillon
wine region of France
. Red, rosé
and a few white wines are produced-the reds from Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre
, Syrah, Carignan and Cinsaut
grapes; the white are made from a blend of from Grenache blanc
and Grenache gris. The boundaries of the AOC are identical with the Banyuls AOC
as many of the grapes grown in Collioure destined for use in the fortified Vins doux naturels of the region. The grapes that do not get used for Banyuls are then produced as non-fortified still wines under the Collioure AOC.
was likely introduced to the area soon after the ancient Greeks introduced winemaking
to the Languedoc are in the 6th century BC. Under the Romans, viticulture spread throughout the area with the nearby cities of Narbonne
, Carcassonne
and Perpignan
being major centers for the trade of Roussillon wine from areas like Collioure. For a large part of its history, the region has been under Spanish rule and was even a part of the Catalonia
region until the mid-17th century. Like other Roussillon wine regions, this Spanish influence can be seen in the types of wines produced here. Even today, wine experts such as Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson
describe the wines of Collioure as being more like Spanish wines in profile than French.
The history of the Collioure region has been closely linked to the wines of Banyuls. For several centuries, grapes produced in this region was used to produced the fortified wine that gained an international reputation. It wasn't until 1971 that the region gained it own identity with an AOC established for production of non-fortified red wines.
which separates the area from the Spanish wine region of Catalonia across the border. Both the mountains and the sea have strong influences on the region's distinctly Mediterranean climate. During the summer growing season
, temperatures are very warm and dry with the potential for draught. In the evening, cool winds from the mountains descend above the vineyard which can help moderate temperatures for the vines.
Vineyard soils in the area ranging from alluvial soils near the sea and rivers to more gravel
, limestone
and schist
based soils closer to the foothills of the Pyrenees. The soil types will have an impact on the resulting style of wine with the more schist based soils on the higher slopes of the foothills produced more intense, full bodied wines while the more alluvial soils closer to the sea will produce lighter styles of wine.
Many producers in Collioure also produce wines under the Banyuls label, which tends to have more prestige and fetch a higher price on the international wine market. The nature of the vintage
will usually determine what percentage of Collioure grapes are used Banyuls and what percentage will remain Collioure. When grapes are destined to become Collioure they are usually harvested a couple weeks earlier than the grapes that are destined to be fortified. This is because the warm climate of the region causes grape sugars to rise as acids in the grapes drastically fall. While fortified wines value the high percentage of residual sugar from very ripe grapes, non-fortified wines need more of the balance from the remaining acids. Often, though, winemakers will still need to add additional acids such as tartaric acid
in a process known as acidification. In a typical vintage about one-third of the grapes harvested in the region will be used for Collioure AOC labeled wines.
Grapevines in Collioure are trained in as "bush vines" which, along with vine's age, contributes to the very low yields of Collioure. In fact, the yields from this area are often among the lowest in France-often lower than the AOC maximum of 2.3 tones per acre (40 hectoliters per hectare). Wines produced in Collioure also must not rise above a maximum alcohol level of 15% (min 12% for red, 11.5% for rose and whites)and residual sugar level of 5 grams per liter. This low sugar levels means that all wines from Collioure are technically dry wines but to wine drinkers they may perceive "sweetness" due to the very high levels of ripeness the grapes attain in the warm climate of the region.
time or it maybe produced from a saignée method where some wine is "bleed off" from the fermenting vats of red wines before much of the color inducing phenolic compounds have taken hold. This method produces a more intensely flavored and darker colored red wine while at the same time producing a high quality rose. The whites are usually made from Grenache blanc. The red wines of the region are characterized by their rich, full bodied flavors with spice
aroma notes.
As of 2008, there were an estimated 815 acres (330 hectares) of vineyards planted in the boundaries of the Collioure AOC. In 2002, the encépagement (or permitted grape components of the AOC wine) was changed which included permitting an AOC white wine for the first time. Today wines labeled Collioure AOC must contain at least a 60% blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre with no individual grape variety permitted to exceed 90% of the total blend. Cinsault and Carignan and allowed to up to a maximum of 30%. Prior to the 2002 AOC change, white wines produced from grapes grown in the Collioure region had to be sold as a vin de Pays
. Today the AOC white blend must contain a minimum of 70% blend of Grenache blanc and Grenache gris with Macabeo
, Malvoisie, Marsanne, Roussanne
and Vermentino
permitted to round out the remaining portion of the blend-though each of those grape varieties can not individually exceed 15%.
Over the years, the quality of wines produced in the Collioure AOC has been steadying increasing. Wine experts, such as Andre Domine point to the 1982 encépagement change that permitted the use of Syrah and Mourvedre as a turning point. Modern winemaking techniques have also introduced temperature controlled fermentation as well as increased usage of oak barrels for the aging of wine
. The most well made reds of Collioure are described as having polished (or "soft") tannins, a full bodied and deep dark color with spicy aroma and flavor notes. The roses of the region can be very aromatic and usually have a raspberry color. They are traditionally paired with the local seafood
. The whites can have a golden color and be very full bodied. They are usually consumed within 3 years of harvest.
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...
(AOC) for French wine
French wine
French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...
s situated around the town of Collioure
Collioure
Collioure is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It lies on the Mediterranean and was a part of the ancient Roussillon province....
in the Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
wine region of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Red, rosé
Rosé
A rosé is a type of wine that has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques.- Production techniques :There are three major ways to produce rosé...
and a few white wines are produced-the reds from Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre , Mataró or Monastrell is wine grape variety used to make both strong, dark red wines and rosés. It is an international variety grown in many regions around the world....
, Syrah, Carignan and Cinsaut
Cinsaut
Cinsaut or Cinsault is a red wine grape, whose heat tolerance and productivity make it important in Languedoc-Roussillon and the former French colonies of Algeria and Morocco...
grapes; the white are made from a blend of from Grenache blanc
Grenache Blanc
Grenache blanc is a variety of white wine grape that is related to the red grape Grenache. It is mostly found in Rhône wine blends and in northeast Spain. Its wines are characterized by high alcohol and low acidity, with citrus and or herbaceous notes. Its vigor can lead to overproduction and...
and Grenache gris. The boundaries of the AOC are identical with the Banyuls AOC
Banyuls AOC
Banyuls is a French appellation d'origine contrôlée for a fortified apéritif or dessert wine made from old vines cultivated in terraces on the slopes of the Catalan Pyrenees in the Roussillon county of France, bordering, to the south, the Empordà wine region in Catalonia in Spain.The AOC...
as many of the grapes grown in Collioure destined for use in the fortified Vins doux naturels of the region. The grapes that do not get used for Banyuls are then produced as non-fortified still wines under the Collioure AOC.
History
ViticultureViticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
was likely introduced to the area soon after the ancient Greeks introduced winemaking
Winemaking
Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...
to the Languedoc are in the 6th century BC. Under the Romans, viticulture spread throughout the area with the nearby cities of Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
and Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
being major centers for the trade of Roussillon wine from areas like Collioure. For a large part of its history, the region has been under Spanish rule and was even a part of the Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
region until the mid-17th century. Like other Roussillon wine regions, this Spanish influence can be seen in the types of wines produced here. Even today, wine experts such as Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson
Jancis Robinson
Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...
describe the wines of Collioure as being more like Spanish wines in profile than French.
The history of the Collioure region has been closely linked to the wines of Banyuls. For several centuries, grapes produced in this region was used to produced the fortified wine that gained an international reputation. It wasn't until 1971 that the region gained it own identity with an AOC established for production of non-fortified red wines.
Climate and geography
The Collioure wine region is located along the Mediterranean coast in the Roussillon district, extending from the coast up to the foothills of the PyreneesPyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
which separates the area from the Spanish wine region of Catalonia across the border. Both the mountains and the sea have strong influences on the region's distinctly Mediterranean climate. During the summer growing season
Growing season
In botany, horticulture, and agriculture the growing season is the period of each year when native plants and ornamental plants grow; and when crops can be grown....
, temperatures are very warm and dry with the potential for draught. In the evening, cool winds from the mountains descend above the vineyard which can help moderate temperatures for the vines.
Vineyard soils in the area ranging from alluvial soils near the sea and rivers to more gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
, limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
based soils closer to the foothills of the Pyrenees. The soil types will have an impact on the resulting style of wine with the more schist based soils on the higher slopes of the foothills produced more intense, full bodied wines while the more alluvial soils closer to the sea will produce lighter styles of wine.
Viticulture and winemaking
Vintage
Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...
will usually determine what percentage of Collioure grapes are used Banyuls and what percentage will remain Collioure. When grapes are destined to become Collioure they are usually harvested a couple weeks earlier than the grapes that are destined to be fortified. This is because the warm climate of the region causes grape sugars to rise as acids in the grapes drastically fall. While fortified wines value the high percentage of residual sugar from very ripe grapes, non-fortified wines need more of the balance from the remaining acids. Often, though, winemakers will still need to add additional acids such as tartaric acid
Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid is a white crystalline diprotic organic acid. It occurs naturally in many plants, particularly grapes, bananas, and tamarinds; is commonly combined with baking soda to function as a leavening agent in recipes, and is one of the main acids found in wine. It is added to other foods to...
in a process known as acidification. In a typical vintage about one-third of the grapes harvested in the region will be used for Collioure AOC labeled wines.
Grapevines in Collioure are trained in as "bush vines" which, along with vine's age, contributes to the very low yields of Collioure. In fact, the yields from this area are often among the lowest in France-often lower than the AOC maximum of 2.3 tones per acre (40 hectoliters per hectare). Wines produced in Collioure also must not rise above a maximum alcohol level of 15% (min 12% for red, 11.5% for rose and whites)and residual sugar level of 5 grams per liter. This low sugar levels means that all wines from Collioure are technically dry wines but to wine drinkers they may perceive "sweetness" due to the very high levels of ripeness the grapes attain in the warm climate of the region.
Grapes and wine
The primary grapes of the Collioure AOC are Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre with Carignan and Cinsaut playing minor roles. The Mourvedre planted in Collioure is used almost exclusively for still wine production and is very rarely used in the production of Banyuls. The rose are produced mainly from the red wine grapes that have received very brief skin contact and macerationMaceration (wine)
Maceration is the winemaking process where the phenolic materials of the grape— tannins, coloring agents and flavor compounds— are leached from the grape skins, seeds and stems into the must. Maceration is the process by which the red wine receives its red color, since 99% of all grape juice is...
time or it maybe produced from a saignée method where some wine is "bleed off" from the fermenting vats of red wines before much of the color inducing phenolic compounds have taken hold. This method produces a more intensely flavored and darker colored red wine while at the same time producing a high quality rose. The whites are usually made from Grenache blanc. The red wines of the region are characterized by their rich, full bodied flavors with spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
aroma notes.
As of 2008, there were an estimated 815 acres (330 hectares) of vineyards planted in the boundaries of the Collioure AOC. In 2002, the encépagement (or permitted grape components of the AOC wine) was changed which included permitting an AOC white wine for the first time. Today wines labeled Collioure AOC must contain at least a 60% blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre with no individual grape variety permitted to exceed 90% of the total blend. Cinsault and Carignan and allowed to up to a maximum of 30%. Prior to the 2002 AOC change, white wines produced from grapes grown in the Collioure region had to be sold as a vin de Pays
Vin de pays
Vin de pays is a French term meaning "country wine". Vins de pays are a step in the French wine classification which is above the table wine classification, but below the VDQS and Appellation d'origine contrôlée classifications...
. Today the AOC white blend must contain a minimum of 70% blend of Grenache blanc and Grenache gris with Macabeo
Macabeo
Viura, also called Macabeo or Macabeu is a white variety of wine grape.It is widely grown in the Rioja region of northeastern Spain, the Cava producing areas south of Barcelona, and the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France...
, Malvoisie, Marsanne, Roussanne
Roussanne
Roussanne is a white wine grape grown originally in the Rhône wine region in France, where it is often blended with Marsanne. It is the only other white variety, besides Marsanne, allowed in the northern Rhône appellations of Crozes-Hermitage AOC, Hermitage AOC and Saint-Joseph AOC...
and Vermentino
Vermentino
Vermentino is a late-ripening white grape variety, primarily found in Italian wine. It is widely planted in Sardinia, in Liguria primarily under the name Pigato, to some extent in Corsica, in Piedmont under the name Favorita, and in increasing amounts in Languedoc-Roussillon. The leaves are dark...
permitted to round out the remaining portion of the blend-though each of those grape varieties can not individually exceed 15%.
Over the years, the quality of wines produced in the Collioure AOC has been steadying increasing. Wine experts, such as Andre Domine point to the 1982 encépagement change that permitted the use of Syrah and Mourvedre as a turning point. Modern winemaking techniques have also introduced temperature controlled fermentation as well as increased usage of oak barrels for the aging of wine
Aging of wine
The aging of wine, and its ability to potentially improve wine quality, distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. While wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating, complex chemical reactions involving a wine's sugars, acids and phenolic compounds can alter the aroma, color,...
. The most well made reds of Collioure are described as having polished (or "soft") tannins, a full bodied and deep dark color with spicy aroma and flavor notes. The roses of the region can be very aromatic and usually have a raspberry color. They are traditionally paired with the local seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
. The whites can have a golden color and be very full bodied. They are usually consumed within 3 years of harvest.