Hautes-Alpes is the IGP that covers wines from the administrative department of the same name on the southeastern border of France. The department is completely dominated by the Alps, making it almost entirely unsuitable for viticulture, and there are no AOC-level appellations in the area. Regardless, a small vineyard remains, making a minuscule amount of wine.
The department lies between the Savoie wine region and the Mediterranean coast of Provence, with the Italian border on the east. In fact, the closest wine region of note is in Italy: Piedmont, the home of Barolo and Barbaresco, lies just on the other side of the Alps.
© Wikimedia/Guillaume Piolle
Viticulture in Hautes-Alpes is mostly found in the valley of the Durance river, which cuts a deep channel through the mountains. Vines occupy only the sunniest sites on south-facing slopes that reach higher than 2000ft (600m) above sea level. These vineyards are among the highest in France, but do not reach the dizzying heights of Salta, Argentina, where the low latitude provides hot days to go with the cold nights. Instead, temperatures in Hautes-Alpes are at the very extreme of what is possible for vines to produce wine grapes.
Site selection is vital in this marginal climate, and vignerons favor areas with porous, alluvial stone soils with some thermal storage properties that reflect heat back onto the plants during the cold nights. This effect helps to optimize ripening, although in colder years grapes can struggle to ripen fully.
A long list of grape varieties are permitted in Hautes-Alpes IGP wines, although in practice this is dominated by Syrah and Cinsaut. Red wine accounts for around half of all the wines made using the IGP, with rosé and white wines making up roughly equal parts of the remaining half.
The Hautes-Alpes department was previously covered by the Vin de Pays des Hautes-Alpes denomination. This has recently been changed, and since 2009 the Vin de Pays category has been known as Indication Géographique Protégée. This classification is more closely aligned with the PGI classification of the European Union.
