The Southwest wine region covers all the vine-growing areas in this corner of France, except Bordeaux, which has it’s own status. It’s a massive region of smaller regions, home two mountain ranges, two river systems, and vineyards located on all the roads to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle.

It’s story begins in Gaillac, one of the oldest vine-growing regions in France. Vines were planted here 500 years before Bordeaux! The wines sailed downstream to the port and then across the Atlantic to England and Holland in triumph, until Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the Southwest came under the English crown. In 1241, he granted the Privilège of Bordeaux, which blocked all the wines from the “Haut Pays” from passing through its port before Christmas Day — a monopoly that lasted 700 years….

Fast forward to the 1980s and 90s, to the era of globalisation, standardisation, Parkerisation. The Southwest lived in Bordeaux’s shadow, planting the same ‘international’ grape varieties and imitating its wine styles. Meanwhile, a handful of winemakers inspired by biodynamics and the natural wine movement, began to break with convention and replant native grape varieties. These daring pioneers paved the way for a new generation of winemakers and wines with a true sense of place.