Winetour 5 – Full day wines & abbeys

The Languedoc Roussillon vineyard

Discover beautiful abbeys and fine wines

Treat yourself to an amazing tour combining a visit to a lovely Abbey and a wine tasting. Although the history of the Languedoc vineyard begins with the Greeks many eras before our time, and later on with the romans, it developed considerably under the impetus of the benedictine monks in the middle ages, who needed to produce wine for the mass. Patiently they managed to select and to match the different grape varieties with the different soils and microclimates of their local terroirs. The monks of Lagrasse Abbey in the Corbières produced mainly red wines, the monks of St Hilaire Abbey produced the first sarkling wine in 1531 much before Champagne

St Hilaire . In the 10th and 11th centuries, this abbey became the cemetery for the counts of Carcassonne. One of the greatest artists of the 12th century the carver “master of Cabestany” , created here one of his masterpieces: a white marble sarcophagus featuring the marthyre of St Sernin , first beshop of Toulouse . One can admire the superb embellishments from the Gothic period such as the cloister or the painted ceilings dating back to the 16 th century

Sparkling wine tasting

Limoux AOP sparkling wine
Vinification Blanquette and Crémant: after an initial fermentation, the basic wines for each grape are extracted and assemblage begins. A racking liquor is added to begin a second fermentation process in the bottle.  The Crément is stored for at least 12 months on slats and sold 15 months after it is bottled.
Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale : completely natural fermentation, bottled during the descending moon at the end of March, less than 7° of alcohol.

Lagrasse

In the wild Corbières, located on the banks of the river Orbieu, stands the largest Benedictine Abbey in medieval Languedoc. The first records concerning the building dates back to the 8th century . In the 13^th century Lagrasse Abbey was one of the most powerful Benedictine abbeys of the region and it’s abbot was also the lord of an important market town. Following the French Revolution, the monastery was divided into separate secular and religious parts. Both parts can be visited

Corbieres AOP wines

Vinification Red:traditional destalked fermentation or whole berry vinification. Rosé by saignée or direct pressing. White : traditional vinification, skin maceration, (aging in barrels for certain wines).