The Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon (CIVR) is the body charged with the overall regulation and promotion of the wines from Roussillon in Southern France; a region of 19,000ha of vineyards and over 400 wineries.
While this is a large entity, to put it into perspective, it’s nowhere near as large as the CIVL of neighboring Languedoc. The latter holds a massive spread of vineyards (220,000ha) and appellations producing everything from reds of substance to sweets to sparklings and well, everything. With so many disparate parts, it’s been the case that various appellations have left its auspices with both Fitou and Corbières voting to leave recently.
Up until 2024, the CIVR of Roussillon had avoided the fate of its neighbor and managed overall unity with all appellations working together to promote the brand of the region. There were however issues recently and the appellations of Banyuls/Grand Cru Banyuls (dessert wines), Collioure (dry wines), and the IGP of Côte Vermeille (for everything under the sun) considered leaving back in 2021 but decided to stay on for another term. Once the time for renewal came up in 2024, they finally decided to leave. They’re now working to promote the wines of these appellations which cover the villages of Collioure, Port-Vendres, Banyuls-sur-Mer, and Cerbère via the group of, Les Vignerons sur Mer, or, the winemakers on the sea.
It’s a big step to take, but on the plus side, it’s allowed me to split up the two regions and release a report on Roussillon as well as a seperate one on Collioure-Banyuls which seems like a much better fit.
When I was working on the Roussillon report last year, just after the Collioure-Banyuls leaving news became known, I asked the director of export promotion at the CIVR, Eric Aracil what he thought about it. He didn’t say much but diplomatically stated, “Well, they’ve decided to go their own direction.”
Other winemakers in Roussillon were more candid but didn’t want to be cited. One said, “The CIVR is very unhappy as it’s fractured the united front that had been in place all these years.” while another more forwardly said, “If there’s one group in Roussillon to go their own way, it’s definitely them.”
When working on this year’s Collioure-Banyuls report, I asked the director of their Syndicat, Igor Akhiridinov what their side of the story was and his reply was quite pragmatic. “It wasn’t anything personal, it’s just that the producers here were paying about 100,000€ annually to the CIVR and while there were some wineries in this region that benefitted from the export promotion, the majority did not.”
What’s behind this statement is the fact that in Collioure-Banyuls, a not insignificant 75% of all their sales are direct in the region. The “winemakers on the sea” tagline is no joke as they have vineyards literally down to the water as historically, the region made money through anchovy fishing. In the off months from fishing, they’d tend to the vines. And then with time, beach tourism took off and those visitors have always wanted wine which the producers are happy to sell them, directly.
There has also been a large change in the profile of what they produce which has in turn changed the scope of exports. While Banyuls was a famed dessert wine in the past and dominated the region, the production is now seen as roughly 2/3 in Collioure and 1/3 in Banyuls. Given rapidly-changing tastes in wines, this will most likely accelerate as people look to lighter, lower-alcohol wines which, Banyuls, as intricate and amazing as it is in terms of favor depth, is not.
Carving out a name on the crowded, shrinking wine stage of the world is no small order these days. But in all truth, Roussillon has seen a very large portion of its production shift to the Côtes Catalanes appellations as it’s more lenient and has a name that people can already identify. As to how they’ve been using this name, note that the region of Roussillon happens to be Catalunya Nord, disconnected via 17th-century treaty from the main portion down in Spain.
But Collioure-Banyuls are hitting the ground running and had a large tasting event for Horeca and press the day after I was there. Additionally they have four local events throughout the year to promote the wines. And then on top of that, they’re working on a single vineyard, Burgundy-style classification system which would be a first in this southern part of France.
They appear readily aware of what work lies ahead and as shown by my Tasting Report, they also have the wines to back it up, leaving me to look forward to their progress in the next few years.
