Livre Vins de Cassis

La ville est née de la mer,

dès son peuplement, et a grandi par elle, de la pêche ou du commerce – vigne et pierre, essentielle- ment. Comme la grande bleue fut longtemps l’accès le plus facile à cette enclave naturelle, l’activité économique et le bâti se sont développés prioritairement sur sa façade maritime. Et celle-ci est largement ouverte. Protégée par les deux avancées, les deux bras qui l’enca- drent, le cap Canaille et les Calanques, la rade de Cassis présente des côtes déchiquetées – plus de 11 kilomètres au total, la partie centrale abritant le port. Cette grande bouche, ce grand débouché sur la mer fait de Cassis un carrefour d’influences, climatique et humain : la Provence, ce sont d’abord les Provençaux, héritiers de multiples apports au fils des siècles et bâtisseurs d’une civilisation, d’un art de vivre singuliers, dont le vin n’est pas l’élément le moins important. Or, le vin de Cassis est authentiquement, profondément, viscéralement provençal : on n’ima- gine pas un déjeuner au cabanon ou une partie de pêche sans une bouteille de blanc de Cassis ! Et la résistance même de cette couleur face au développement du rosé est à elle seule une preuve du caractère bien provençal du vigneron cassidain, fier de son patrimoine et déterminé dans son travail.

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The town was born from the sea

from the first days of its settlement, and has grown thanks to the sea and its industries of fishing and trade, predominantly in wine and quarried stone. Because the sea was for a very long time the easiest access, this natural enclave, its business life and buildings first developed along its sea frontage. And it is openly embraced by the sea. Flanked by the two protective arms provided by the sea cliffs of Cap Canaille and the creeks known as les Calanques, the natural harbour of Cassis is framed by more than 11 kilometres of jagged coastline with the port at its centre. This wide expanse of water and grand gateway to the sea have made Cassis a crossroads for both climatic and cultural influences: Provence is first and foremost about its people, who have inherited so many influences over the centuries and built a civilisation around a unique lifestyle in which wine is by no means the least important part. The wine of Cassis is authentically, profoundly and viscerally Provençal: no one here could imagine a lunch at the beach hut or a fishing trip without a bottle of Cassis white wine! And the fact that this wine has stood up so valiantly to the massive expansion of rosé is itself proof of the genuinely Provençal character

of the wine-growers of Cassis and its wider region, their pride in its heritage and their determination to carry on their good work.

From the Etruscans to the Romans

When the Etruscans, the Celto-Ligurians, the Greeks and then the Romans arrived and settled in Cassis, they arrived from the sea, and came primarily to trade. Very few traces of these early trading posts remain, but documents dating from the first century BC, and therefore well within the Roman period, show that the town had achieved a fair level of prosperity by that time. It must have grown relatively quickly, since it appears in the Antonine Itinerary, the nearest thing to a traveller’s guidebook in the Roman world, which began to be compiled under the Emperor Augustus. And, given the isolated location of the area guarded by steep cliffs and the problems of overland transport in those days, it seems reasonable to suppose that trade was based primarily on exporting. The discovery of Greek and Roman amphorae beneath the sea off Cassis and on land highlights the brisk trade in wine that has been a continuous feature since antiquity.

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