Faugères AOC

Faugères (also known as Coteaux-du-Languedoc Faugères) is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region in France and is named after the town of Faugères, which lies 30 km north of Béziers, in the foothills of the Massif Central, in the département of Hérault. It is a local classification within the Coteaux-du-Languedoc AOC. Faugères is not the oldest winemaking area in Languedoc. In the Middle Ages, its land was mainly used for growing grain, and olives. However, there was some viticulture, most notably the production of altar wine. Faugères started to flourish as a wine-producing area around the time of the French revolution, i.e. around the start of the 19th century. Local wine was in fact mainly used to produce a type of eau de vie, using a distilling method from the Charente region, that was previously unknown in the Languedoc. This method was called 'fine', so this eau de vie was named 'Fine Faugères'. 1948: The Faugères terroir's borders were defined, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and remain unchanged to this day. 1955: each type of Faugères wine (red, white and rosé) was classified as Appellation d'Origine Vin de Qualité Supérieure (VDQS). 1960s: Violent storms destroyed part of the Faugères vineyards, torrential rain gullying the vines. Some plots of land were buried in landslides. Vines were replanted along the contour lines of the newly formed land. 1982: Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP Faugères) classification replaced the VDQS status for the red and rosé Faugères wines. 2000: Eau de vie production was recommenced in Faugères. 2005: AOC replaced VDQS status for the white Faugères wines. 2017: Appellation d'Origine Protégée replaces the former AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) label, within the framework of new 'quality' ladder (following a national reform of the wine quality labels in France). The name of the AOC comes from the village Faugères, whose earliest known written form, dating back to 934 AD, was de Falgarias.