Wake up to the Wines of Southwest France
“It’s the greatest undiscovered wine region of France...a cluster of often remote appellations, many so small that it’s hard for them to make a wave in the market. They export a bit here, they export a bit there, they sell to the locals – and then all the wine is gone, before the world at large has had a chance to wake up and take notice”
A Cluster of Contrasts
Take it in. The greatest undiscovered wine region of France. 42 appellations in the orbit of Toulouse, scattered like confetti between Bergerac and the Basque Country, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, and two huge administrative regions: Nouvelle Aquitaine in the west, oceanside, and Occitanie to the east, in the former Midi-Pyrenees. This vast region includes all the vine-growing areas in the southwesterly corner of France except Bordeaux (2): a cluster of contrasts, a constellation of terroirs without a recognisable shape to simplify the storytelling - although, if you look closely, can you see a mythical, supernatural, birdlike creature? Wings spread wide, head held high, breathing in the ocean? It’s a phoenix says a vigneron in Gaillac, a member of the collective behind the region’s biggest artisan wine fair.
There’s real energy in the Southwest, a gravitational force that’s pulling like-minded producers together. They are rising above bureaucratic divisions and physical distances to unite their strengths around Contrastes! The 3rd edition of this brilliant wine fair will take place on 9-10 November 2025 in Toulouse. It’s a rare chance for wine-lovers and the trade to discover the quality wines of the Southwest in the heart of the pink city, to connect the dots between all these cultures and terroirs with 100 growers who share the same ethos in the vineyard and the winery.
A Living Heritage
“It’s almost definitionally the Great Other of French wines - a crucible where the lives of grapes come crashing together in tangled and wonderful ways. ”
The Southwest is always defined by its diversity, which is indeed dazzling, but can also be bewildering. How do you get your head around so many different terroirs, grape varieties and wine styles? It’s the links that bring everything into focus, the philosophy shared by the growers combined with the forces of cohesion at play since the beginning of time: two mountain ranges, two river systems, one of the oldest vine-growing regions in France, still home to wild vines, and vineyards located on all the long and winding roads to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. From 1189, thousands of pilgrims passed through these hills and valleys with cuttings and seeds in their satchels. They gave rise to the abbeys on all the paths to Spain and back, and with them, a multitude of vineyards and grape varieties - the very same you’ll find in a Southwest wine-tasting experience today.
Loin de L’oeil, Mauzac, Bouysselet, Colombard, Petit Manseng…to name but a handful of white grapes…Fer Servadou from the Aveyron a.k.a Braucol in the Tarn or Mansois in Marcillac…Malbec from Cahors or its papa Prunelard in Gaillac, Tannat from Madiran, now a star in Uruguay, or Duras, related to Cabernet Franc, parent to Carmenère, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon…what will it be for you? Out of 300 different grape varieties in the Southwest, 130 are indigenous and around 40 feature in contemporary wines. These rare and ancient grape varieties are key to preserve local biodiversity and original flavours, and prioritised by all growers protective of their terroirs. They are a living heritage, the signature of Southwest wine culture, which is rooted in resistance and resilience.
A Creative Dynamic
Have you ever met a vigneron who doesn’t love their terroir? Their soils, their vines, their position between earth and sky, and all the micro and macro interactions that take place over a year - an infinite source of creativity, a platform for their sensibility: the terroir is in effect the radio signal, and the winegrower is turning the dial, tuning the radio into that signal, says Jamie Goode [4]. At the Frank Thomas School of Intuitive and Geo-sensorial Tasting, they talk about wine with a message. How do you receive a wine? Spontaneously, on the spot, giving free rein to your perceptions and sensations? Or is your judgement clouded by marketing, the tastemakers, the AOCs? Like music needs listeners and words need readers, wine needs drinkers and so terroir is a powerful commercial tool as well as a natural given - the Southwest wine region remains a niche player in this arena. The AOC has over 4000 paying members, conventional, organic, biodynamic and natural winemakers combined. There are hundreds of growers working outside the AOC criteria to meet climate change, adapt to the vintage, or simply follow their own instincts.
“Isn’t it just as important, especially for the future of wine-growing in the face of climatic and organic changes, to emphasise human freedom, will and power?… Quality wine is above all a creative dynamic, not static ”
The Southwest is a land of modest farmsteads, not Grand Châteaux. Its best wines are discovered through word of mouth, behind closed doors, at dedicated salons or directly on site by curious sommeliers, distributors, wine writers and wine lovers: adventurous types less focused on the fame of a terroir and more on the choices of the winemaker, who no doubt agree with the words of Pascaline Lepeltier in the Terroir chapter of ‘A Thousand Vines’: Quality wine is above all a creative dynamic, not static.
Which brings me back to the creative dynamic in Southwest France, to a passionate community of artisan growers, always moving, on the beat, year after year, in rhythm with the seasons, yet never producing quite the same song. Always watching, listening, adapting to myriad vagaries to offer us a taste of living energy - a vibration. Wine is chemistry, derived from alchemy, the study of life. When it’s good, it’s like music, you feel it with your body: a sensation that takes you somewhere where the clock stops. Like stars in a constellation, it gives you a giddy glimpse of an alternative truth. Which brings me back to the wines in my little cave - a Southwest wine trip with a sagrada familia of wine grapes and growers who are mad to live…who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn burn burn like fabulous yellow roman candles, exploding like spiders across the stars. [7]
Isn’t it time to wake up and notice?
[1] Andrew Jefford, Decanter 2021, Wine Scholar Guild, 2024
[2] Charlie Leary, Jane Anson – Inside Bordeaux, January 2025
[3] Jon Bonné, The New French Wine, 2023
[4] Dr Jamie Goode at The Sourcing Table
[5] Pascaline Lepeltier, One Thousand Vines, ed. 2022 (ref. Roger Dion “History of the Vine and Wine)
[6] Idem - Pascaline Lepeltier, One Thousand Vines, ed. 2022
[7] Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957, ed. 2018
