Wine-making
The vines, like the olives, are to be found everywhere in the Clermontais. The winegrowers started creating landscapes with parcels of land many years ago. There is no road without a landscape of vines.
Here and there are sloping terraces with stone walls, bits of land next to a mazet or a small house which are still used for storing small tools and spending time with the family.
The villages have a very particular architecture of small houses built one next to the other and with a carriage entrance that opens onto the road where a tractor or wooden containers for harvesting grapes were stored. And also wine fermentation tanks. Some of the big houses that were owned by wine traders are witness to the increasing prosperity in the 19th century.
In the countryside, some of the bigger winegrowing domains were also referred to as ‘follies’ as the vineyards surrounding them got bigger and bigger.
The Clermontais is fiercely proud of its past memories. Here the vineyard is an important part of everyone’s life. Previously, the vine was cultivated mostly for the family, but with increasing demand the winegrowers started to produce more, sometimes grouping together in cooperatives.
For many long decades the wine in the Languedoc was not renowned until the new generation of winegrowers working the vines again started to make good wine. They now have widespread recognition and the wine is excellent! Don’t hesitate to push open the doors of the cellars to discover the excellent vintage wines! Our winegrowers are only too happy to describe passionately how they work.