Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert is an IGP title that covers red, white and rosé wines made in the northeastern corner of the Herault department in southern France. The terroir here at the foot of the Cevennes mountain range is shared by the Languedoc AOC, and more specifically by the sub-appellations Pic Saint-Loup and Sommieres. Wines that do not adhere to the geographical or stylistic requirements of these AOCs can be labeled instead as Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert IGP.
© Wikimedia/Stefan Fink
Vines have been grown in this part of southern France since the Middle Ages, having been first planted by Benedictine monks. The area was officially recognized as a Vin de Pays in 1968, then covering five communes surrounding the town of Saint-Guilhem-la-Desert. When the Vin de Pays category of French wine was replaced in 2009 by Indication Géographique Protégée, the officially delimited area swelled considerably to include 71 villages. This expansion reflected commonalities in the wider terroir, and gave growers in the area more options when it came to labeling their wines. The IGP has two further geographical indicators: wines from a particular set of villages in the east of the region may have Val de Montferrand on their label, while wines from the village of Aniane may be labeled as Cite d’Aniane.
The official vineyard zone of Saint-Guilhem-la-Desert encompasses both alluvial plains and the foothills of the Cevennes mountains. Here, the warm Mediterranean climate is tempered by the effects of altitude. Most of the more-elevated vineyards experience a pronounced diurnal temperature variation, which slows ripening in the grapes, leading to a good balance of flavor and acidity. The presence of the mountains also serves to protect the area from cold winds from the north.
The scrub-covered mountains in the Saint-Guilhem-la-Desert IGP zone are characteristic of Languedoc’s landscape, and cover the region’s myriad slopes of limestone marl. These dry, porous soils provide good drainage for the vines, ensuring that root systems do not get swamped in the relatively high rainfall of the region.
The Saint-Guilhem-la-Desert IGP has a long list of permitted grape varieties that covers local grape varieties like Grenache and Mourvedre, but also the more international varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and Viognier. As in many of the IGPs in southern France, growers are moving increasingly toward single-varietal wines rather than the more traditional blends.
