South-West: the Tour de France on the wine side

After passing through the heart of the vineyards of the Val-de-Loire, the Tour de France continues its journey southwards and the first mountain stages. As we approach the Pyrenees, let's take a step higher and discover the charms of the vineyards of the South-West. This (de)tour reserves you a breathtaking wine panorama!

Journey in the heart of the vineyards of the South-West of France

In order to prepare our Tour des Vignobles, a few technical and meteorological details are necessary. With a very contrasted climate, the South-West region has no less than 300 grape varieties and has about twenty vineyards divided into four main sub-regions : the Bergeracois and Duras, the Moyenne Garonne, the Massif Central Piedmont and the Pyrenean Piedmont.

These territories are notably distinguished from each other by very different climatic conditions and a wide range of geological features. While the vineyards of Bergeracois and Duras benefit from an oceanic climate with continental influences, the vines of the Pyrenean Piedmont have to cope with the harsh mountain climate, tempered by the mildness and humidity of the Atlantic Ocean.While the vineyards of Bergeracois and Duras share similar properties to the neighbouring Bordeaux vineyards, the vineyards in the southern Piedmont of the Massif Central stand out with a climate with southern influences.

While waiting to enjoy the benefits of the Mediterranean Sea, cyclists will have to face the various legendary passes of the Pyrenees!

Tour of the main appellations of the South-West

On the Tour route for more than 100 years, the South-West region has become an essential stage of the Grande Boucle but also attracts every year many wine enthusiasts who come to discover the twenty or so appellations that the region has to offer.

They thus come to the Piedmont of the Massif Central to appreciate all the power and elegance of Cahors or Gaillac, which comes in all colours. The Bergeracois can count on the inimitable taste of Monbazillac to seduce its visitors. This region also offers excellent red, rosé and white wines such as Bergerac. It will be impossible to pass through the region without discovering the Côtes-de-Duras. The Moyenne Garonne will also delight our taste buds with the Fronton, in red and rosé, or with the Côtes-Du-Marmandais offering fragrant and supple reds and rosés, as well as fresh and fruity whites.

Before joining the Tour, we discover the atypical wines of the Pyrenean Piedmont, such as Irouléguy, offering an original red wine with spicy and wild flower aromas, an aromatic and virile rosé wine, as well as a fresh white wine with a beautiful aromatic length.

Gourmet stages in the South-West

Out of competition, the reputation of the gastronomy of the South-West is no longer to be proven! You will have no trouble finding a speciality to accompany and sublimate the wines of the region!

You are a great lover of powerful and fleshy red wines? Enjoy beautiful pieces of meat from the region such as farmhouse beef from Aubrac, Barèges-Gavarnie sheep, or the famous duck breast from the South West.

You are rather young, fresh and fruity red wines? These wines will go wonderfully well with Gascon beef with foie gras from the South-West, farmhouse chicken thighs from the Gers, or with dishes based around Lautrec's pink garlic.

Would you rather opt for a dry white wine? Dry white wines with fruity and lively aromas will be perfect with cheese dishes such as the famous soufflet au Laguiole.

You prefer a soft and mellow wine? They can accompany a dish such as a farm guinea fowl from the Gers, or can go well with a dessert such as the pyramid of Chasselas de Moissac.

You let yourself be seduced by a rosé wine? They will be perfect with a breast of veal from Aveyron and Ségala confit.

The comment of the stage: If the ascents in the Pyrenees always reserve many surprises, the wines of the South-West have not finished surprising us by their diversity and their typicity.

Quentin (Les Grappes)