Roquemaure, Gard - Wine

Wine

Winemaking was probably introduced into Rhone valley by Greek colonists around 600 BC. Archaeological excavations carried out at La Ramière suggests that wine, or possibly olive oil, was being produced at the site in the second half of the 1st century AD. The earliest written mention of viticulture in Roquemaure is by Gervase of Tilbury in his Otia Imperialia which was completed around 1214:

In the Rhone stands the castle of Roquemaure. They judge that the castle itself belongs to the empire, which has rights over the river, while its estate belongs to the kingdom of France, which owns the land-rights. On the estate of this castle there are vines which the people call brumestae, producing good fat grapes. These vines flower and produce clusters of grapes as ordinary vines do, but then they cheat their husbandman's expectation: for when it comes to the feast of St John the Baptist, all the fruit vanishes, and nothing which might have grown into fruit is found on them.

This is description of a vine disorder called coulure in which the flowers fail to set.

Roquemaure introduced commercial protection of its wine, the Côtes du Rhône AOC, by stamping 'CDR' on the barrels. The accompanying rules became the basis of the regulations for today's AOC - appellation d'origine contrôlée.