Cotes du Roussillon Villages is an appellation for the higher-quality dry red wines from the Roussillon wine region of southern France. The title covers an area in the hillier northern third of Roussillon, immediately south of Languedoc's Fitou and Corbieres appellations. It represents wines which are a step up in quality from the more generic Cotes du Roussillon appellation.
Four villages within the Cotes du Roussillon Villages catchment area – Caramany, Latour de France, Lesquerde and Tautavel – have been recognized as sources of particularly high-quality wines and are permitted to add their names to the appellation title. They are located in the center and west of northern Roussillon, in areas offering particularly favorable viticultural conditions. The terroir here benefits from the presence of south-facing or wind-sheltered slopes and granite-rich soils.
Cotes du Roussillon Villages wines which are not specifically from the named villages may come from any parish within the appellation's general catchment area. This neatly falls north of a line drawn from Perpignan in the east to Caramany in the west, with its northern border delineated by the Fitou and Corbieres appellations. More neatly still, this line coincides with the southern edge of the Languedoc region.
The grapes most commonly used in Cotes du Roussillon Villages wines are Carignan, Grenache and Syrah.
