Introduction The wines of the French Pyrenees are closely identified with the land in which they grow. Over the centuries the various grape varieties used have adapted to the range of conditions along the mountain chain, whether in the foothills, close to the temperate Atlantic or in the warm Mediterranean region. Carved out of the landscape and tended by countless generations of devoted farmers, the wine-growing regions of the Pyrenees are today a precious part of our heritage.

A gift of the gods For the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, wine was a gift of the gods, with many virtues. From the time of their earliest colonies around ancient Marseilles, the Greeks saw how well-suited the vine was to the growing conditions they found there, and planted the first French vineyards more than 2,500 years ago. Wine growing really took off in the 1st Century B.C. when the veterans of the Roman legions settling around Narbonne turned the region into one enormous vineyard. The vine then followed in the footsteps of men along the roads leading from Roussillon to Languedoc, Aquitaine and the foothills of the Pyrenees.

	Glory, decline and renewal Wine-growing carried on despite the invasions of the barbarian Visigoths, then declined under Moorish occupation until the beginning of the 9th Century. After the turn of the first millennium, the skill of the many monasteries and abbeys helped it to develop once again. At the height of their glory, Pyrenean wines were drunk by royalty and shepherds alike. Vines covered every inch of hillside, even on slopes too steep for animals, where all the work had to be done by hand, while cereals were grown on the plains. This separation of crops continued down to the 19th Century. But the catastrophic phylloxera epidemic of 1882, followed by the First World War which carried off so much of the population and reduced the labour supply, led to the region's decline. Since then, a constant search for improvement and the choice of phylloxera-resistant vines have brought about a complete revolution in Pyrenean wines, which today boast many wines of recognised quality and 'AOCs' (appellations d'origine contrôlée or Certified Labels of Origin). This itinerary offers the chance to discover 14 wine regions of the French Pyrenees, their history, their grape varieties, specialist tips on how best to savour them, and addresses to help you find and taste them.