Wines of the Delta

The Costières de Nîmes is the key wine-growing zone of Western Europe’s largest river delta.  It’s not Languedoc, and it’s not Provence either.  It’s the Camargue where the Rhône reaches the sea via a multitude of ever-changing mouths, and where, over hundreds of thousands of years has dumped huge terraces and banks of rolled pebbles en route - the same as the famous galets roulés of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

But Is it a different terroir to Châteauneuf?  Certainly.  It’s much closer to the sea, and much more clearly maritime. The sea wind comes in every afternoon in summer and temperatures drop significantly. These ‘maritime entrants’, as they are locally called, always bring moist air as well as cooling breezes. That is something the Mourvèdre loves. The region’s other key variety is Syrah of a fleshy, voluptuous style. And Grenache makes up the trilogy but it is less widely planted here than in Châteauneuf.

Costières de Nîmes encloses the virtually unknown white wine appellation of Clairette de Bellegarde. Created in 1949, the Clairette de Bellegarde appellation was intended to provide distinction between the more usual style of southern French wines and the unique style of Bellegarde's Clairette-based output.

The history of the Clairette de Bellegarde AOC vineyards dates back to the ancient Greeks who planted the vines, and to the Romans who played their part in developing them. Much later, local monastic communities – here the Abbey of St Romain – also had a hand in boosting viticulture in Terre d’Argence. The area is impacted by the presence of a number of inland waterways including the Rhône, the Petit Rhône, a series of streams and brooks, the Canal du Rhône to Sète and the Philippe Lamour canal.

Few people have had the chance to try the white wines of this appellation - probably because of it’s size. Only 7ha of that remain in cultivation today. Its wines are made by 7 winegrowers only, in a cooperative winery and in private cellars.