Geography of the Tavel appellation

Tavel is a wine appellation whose wines are produced in the southern Rhône vineyards and has the French label "as well as the European label Protected Designation of Origin. It is the only Rhone appellation to make only rosé wine.

The AOC Tavel rosé is produced only in the communes of Tavel and Roquemaure in the Gard department.

History of Tavel
Established by the Greeks around the 5th century BC, the culture of the vine in the region knows a real boom with the Romans. The village of Tavel located on an important axis of communication between the oppidum of Roquemaure and the city of Nîmes was in an ideal position to develop.

Fragments of amphorae decorated with bunches of grapes dating from this period support the idea that Tavel was an important vineyard.

But it is on writings from the 13th century that the name of Villa Tavellis and its vineyard appears for the first time, which will be transformed and become over the centuries Tavel.

Pope Innocent VI, in the 14th century, who was particularly fond of wines from the right bank of the Rhône, selected the Priory of Montézargues for the pontifical table.

This still existing domain is at the heart of the AOC Tavel. After the return of the Popes to Rome until the French Revolution, the wines of Tavel and its region will be exported to Italy.

In 1737, sanctioned by a royal edict, it was forbidden to add foreign wines in the production of the appellation and the wines of Tavel, like other communes of the Gard, the producers of the appellation could mark their barrels of acronym CdR (Côtes du Rhône) laying there the premises of the Controlled Designation of Origin.

It was in 1902 that the union of owner-winemakers was created, formed by wine producers from Tavel, to promote their rosé wines at various national and international exhibitions which raised their notoriety.

In 1927, initiated by Baron Le Roy de Boiseaumarié, Aimé Roudil, the president of the union and forty producers of Tavel instituted legal proceedings before the civil court of Gard in order to define the production area of ​​Cru Tavel. The decree will be promulgated definitively on November 19, 1937.

The grapes only vinified in rosé are assembled before fermentation, giving colors ranging from salmon, to deep pink, to ruby ​​for its color. Their complex nose of red fruits can evolve into the mellow notes of stone fruits and almonds. On the palate, the Tavel rosés reveal a great aromatic power, ample and very round.