Sarragachies

Municipality in the Gers department in Gascony, south-west France. Here, within the Côtes de Saint-Mont area, there is a very special vineyard with the profane designation USR 205. On an area of only 20 acres, there are vines planted that are more than 200 years old. They are ungrafted The vines are very old, i.e. they stand on their own feet without grafting, because the predominantly sandy soil allowed them to survive the phylloxera pest of the 19th century unscathed and they are still in their original condition. There are 20 different grape varieties here, 7 of which have not yet been identified. They are not planted in rows of vines as is the case today, but "in a square" as was the custom in the past. The Regional Heritage and Sites Commission (CRPS) of the Midi-Pyrénées region was the first to award this vineyard the title of historic monument.

Gemeine Sarragachies - Weinberg mit alten Reben

Since 2002, the local community "Plaimont Producteurs" has maintained an open-air museum, so to speak, on several sites under the name "Conservatoire ampélographique". A total of 116 varieties of the oldest plots of the appellations Côtes de Gascogne, Côtes de Saint-Mont, Madiran and Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh are observed. Of these, 60 varieties are under special surveillance. Of these, 27 varieties were still known and partly in use by individual winegrowers, but 33 could only be identified after DNA analyses. A total of 12 probably very old vines are completely unknown.

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Sarragachies

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