Winetour 5 – half day Lagrasse & wines

Discover a beautiful abbey 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

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).