Collioure and Côtes du Roussillon

Between the Corbières to the north, the Albères to the south and the Canigó to the west, the Roussillon wine country forms an amphitheatre open to the Mediterranean, crossed by the Agly, the Têt and the Tech. Long known first and foremost for its vins doux naturels, it also produces dry wines under three appellations of origin. The Côtes du Roussillon (red, rosé and white) cover 113 communes; the Côtes du Roussillon Villages, reserved for reds, lie mainly in the north, around the Agly. Both were recognised on 28 March 1977; Collioure, on the Côte Vermeille, dates from 1971. Other wines may fall under the PGI Côtes Catalanes.

Within a small area, a great variety of soils come to the surface: steep slopes of schist or limestone in the north, molasse hills in the south, and stony terraces along the valleys, with dry, poor and well-drained soils. The Villages come in five denominations: Caramany on gneiss, Latour-de-France where the Agly emerges, Lesquerde on granitic arènes, Tautavel on the clay-limestones of the Verdouble and, since 2017, Les Aspres.

Collioure shares its area with Banyuls: Banyuls-sur-Mer, Cerbère, Collioure and Port-Vendres, where the Albères plunge into the sea. On the schist, the vines are grown on terraces up to 400 metres above sea level, held in place by more than 5,000 kilometres of dry-stone walls, and harvested by hand. When Banyuls became an appellation of origin in 1936, the dry wines were excluded; they obtained their own appellation in 1971 for reds, in 1991 for rosés and in 2003 for whites.

The reds are based on grenache noir, carignan, mourvèdre and syrah; the whites on grenache blanc and gris, macabeu, tourbat (Malvoisie du Roussillon), marsanne, roussanne and vermentino. At Caramany as at Lesquerde, carignan undergoes carbonic maceration, which softens its tannins. Collioure reds are aged at least until 15 May following the harvest, those of the Aspres for a minimum of twelve months.