Wine tour Baixas: Catalonia in France

Wine tour Baixas: Catalonia in France

Wine-producing cooperatives, with their many members, do not always have the best name in the wine world. Dom Brial, however, proves that things can be different. Indeed, this award-winning cooperative makes seductive, exquisite wines in the southern French Baixas, a beautiful area just a stone's throw from Perpignan.

It's quite a drive from northern Holland to Baixas, but in these corona times we prefer to take the car anyway. And there is plenty to see along the way. We take the Route du Sud to the south of
France and at Avignon we turn right. There is not only the song 'Sur le pont d'Avignon' about Avignon, there is also plenty to see. The never-finished bridge in the heart of Avignon is a sight in itself, and you can also take heart from the pope's former residences in Avignon. In fact, the papal church administration spent some time in Avignon during a clerical quarrel in the Middle Ages. We then drive on to Perpignan, the ancient capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales. The city is in the middle of the Catalan part and everything breathes Catalonia, the language, the food and the atmosphere. The climate, too, by the way: in Perpignan, the sun seems to shine almost all the time, at least some 300 days a year. Moreover, the historic city bursts
of castles and museums. If you don't feel like that, walking through this beautiful old town alone is a delight in itself.

APPELLATION

But we come here for the wine. After a delicious tapas lunch - for Spanish food you'll be fine in Perpignan - we drive on to Baixas. On this very hot day right after the lockdown in France, I visit the town of Baixas north of Perpignan. The name of the town already shows that Catalan is asserting itself in this region. Baixas has a very distinct terroir of schist, clay, limestone, pebbles and granite. And for these reasons, producers wanted their own appellation. The INAO did not provide that appellation, saying Baixas would be too similar to Rías Baixas. You know, the albariño appellation in northwestern Spain. Because of Baixas' specific terroir, a separate appellation is definitely expected in the future.

SHOP

Export manager Laura Sicard tells Dom Brial's story in the shop located opposite the vinification cellars. Normally the place is buzzing with activity, because in Roussillon they like to drink their own local wines. But in this post-lockdown period it is quieter. The cooperative has been in Baixas since 1923 and has 247 members. The name Dom Brial was chosen deliberately. A hundred years before the cooperative was founded, the monk of the same name took the initiative to build a school in Baixas as well as in nearby Pia. He also donated money for maintenance.
In 1985, the cooperative decided to adopt the name Dom Brial as a tribute to this benefactor.

Text Charlotte van Zummeren

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