Côtes de Gascogne
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Côtes de Gascogne is a wine-growing district in Gascony producing principally white country wine, mainly in the department Gers in the French region Midi-Pyrénées, in South West France. The designation Côtes the Gascogne concerns a Vin de Pays produced in the Armagnac area. The decree of the 13th of September 1968 created the difference between a Vin de Pays and the simple table wine, the so-called Vin de table. The designation Côtes de Gascogne obliges the producers to respect the stricter rules and production standards, which were adopted with the decree of the 25th of January 1982.
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[edit] Association of producers
The Association of Producers of the ’’Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne’’ was founded on 15 March 1979, it protects the interests of the members, determines the production standards and is controlling the respect of these rules. The association counts on this moment approximately 1,400 wine farmers. Of them 1,300 are member of cooperative cellars , the so-called ’’caves coopératives’’ is.
Furthermore there, are 150 independently working wine farmers, who produce their wines themselves.
[edit] Production
With a permitted production quantity of 830,000 hectoliters per year, the Gers is France’ largest producer of white ’’Vin de Pays’’, with a production potential of more than 100 millions bottles per year, of which 75% are for export.
In the Gers the production volumes are more or less as follows, 91% white wine, 8% is red and 1% is Rosé wine. This is for the southwest of France very atypical, because in the other departments mainly red wine is produced.
[edit] Rules for wine
Only red, rosé and white wine. Only wines from the defined area.
Types of grape types for red and rosé wine:
Abouriou, Merlot, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Duras, Fer, Négrette, Portugias bleu, Malbec, Tannat.
Types of grape types for white wine:
Colombard, Jurançon, Len de l'El, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Muscadelle, Gros Manseng.
[edit] Production region
The Appélation d’Origine Controlée-regions Côtes de Gascogne, Armagnac and Floc de Gascogne (a local aperitif) are identical. The three Armagnac sub-regions Armagnac-Ténarèze, Bas-Armagnac and Haut-Armagnac form in a way the Côtes de Gascogne.
The region is mainly in the Gers where two thirds of the vineyards, nearly 12 thousand hectares is used for the production of the Côtes de Gascogne wines.
In Gers the cantons: Auch, Cazaubon, Condom, Fleurance, Jegun, Lectoure, Montesquiou, Montréal, Nogaro, Riscle, Plaisance, Aignan, Valence-sur-Baïse, Vic-Fezensac.
The Appellation d’origine contrôlée was in 2005 extended with the Armagnac vineyards laying in twenty-five municipalities in the Bas-Armagnac which are in the department Landes and fourteen other municipalities in the Armagnac-Ténarèze which are in Lot-et-Garonne. The total surface of Côtes de Gascogne thus arrives at 15 thousand hectares.
[edit] Soil
Alluvial soil with clay and sand.
[edit] Climate
The Atlantic ocean although far away behind Les Landes still has influence, further spring is rather wet and it is sunny in the rest of the year.
