Places in France where vines are reappearing

Vineyards in Normandy, land of apple trees, producers in Hauts-de-France switching from beet to viticulture, young estates set up just outside Paris, sometimes just twenty minutes away. There's no need to look for the odd one out - all three are true.

New territories are making their mark on the winegrowing landscape. For one thing, these plantations have only recently become legal. It wasn't until 2016 that the European Union authorized professionals to plant outside official wine-growing regions. But, above all, climate change has turned meteorological experience on its head. Grapes can now ripen north of the map. Fallen vineyards, most of them destroyed by phylloxera, were reborn.

Brittany stands out as the figurehead of these emerging vineyards, attractive and in great demand. Some thirty vineyards and over fifty projects are underway, 200 hectares have been planted, a BPREA viticulture training course has been set up, and the beginnings of a Brittany PGI have been launched. Who could have imagined vines on a seaside postcard, topped by seagulls and lighthouses? By 2050, the region will have a Mediterranean climate.

Finding a common identity

Other freshly planted vines make less noise, far from the tourist coast. Close your eyes and imagine terraces and low dry-stone walls sucked into the slope, with a front-row seat to the sun at over 600 meters altitude. You're in a recreated setting in the Cantal region of southern Auvergne, home to 140,000 inhabitants.

The Communauté de communes du pays de Massiac has decided to revive this ancestral culture of the Alagnon valley hillsides. The reason? To revive tourism in the region. At the dawn of the 2000s, winemakers Gilles Monier, Stéphan Elzière and David Chabasseur set to work. Chardonnay, gamay, pinot noir, côt and abouriou were planted. "We're free to plant what we want," says Stéphan Elzière with the enthusiasm of an explorer. At the risk of encountering more difficulties in weaving a common identity. With no Cantal PGI, the wines are currently attached to the distant Comté Tolosan.

The department now boasts six estates, including Le Chlo d'Auzit from winemaker Chloé Itier, the first vintage bottled this year. Her pinot noir/gamay suggests the fleshiness of cherry, with a fluidity of texture. On the farm of this Cantal native, run with her market gardener husband, you'll also find apple trees, vegetables and cereals. A mixed crop-livestock operation reminiscent of the valley's past.

The vines of Domaine La Bouche du Roi, located on the Versailles plain in the Yvelines.

November harvest

"These new regions, without the weight of tradition, help attract new farmers, and their multiplication is precious," enthuses Geoffrey Estienne, a berry grower for thirty years who became a winemaker in 2017. He too is located in a sparsely populated département in the heart of France. 116,000 inhabitants, who can beat that? Welcome to Creuse, a popular destination for its pleasant oceanic climate.

"In France, it was customary to plant vines where no other crop could be grown.Of the five newcomers, two are Creusois. The others have come for the local mildness, the great outdoors, the water.

"It used to freeze hard here, below -20° C, which didn't allow the vitis vinifera to survive. One year, I had to wait until the end of November for my grapes to ripen, but we managed. I don't think that's the case every year in southern Creuse, for example, on the Millevaches plateau." At Boussac, whose chateau overlooks the rounded landscape, Geoffrey Estienne has planted exclusively hybrid grape varieties, resistant to fungal diseases and enabling him to produce natural wines. These early-ripening varieties were chosen after ten years' consideration.

For the moment, only two winegrowers are already offering wine, the others are waiting to plant or harvest. The land, with its soils preserved by the grazing of small herds, could attract new environmentally conscious candidates. "In Creuse, more than half the population are farmers over the age of fifty. When they retire, we'll be left with huge tracts of land. It doesn't freeze very hard anymore, the land is clean and inexpensive: Creuse is an Eldorado for making wine."