Livre Vins de Cassis

Partons à la découverte

D’un coup d’aile, l’aigle quitte son rocher. Laissant derrière lui la garrigue qui s’accroche sur les éboulis, au pied du cap, il file vers le grand jardin patiemment créé par les hommes au cœur de ce cirque naturel : une marqueterie de vignes si joliment alignées qu’on les dirait peignées ; avec, sur les bordures, les escaliers des restanques qui semblent partir à l’assaut de la forêt. Dans son vol silencieux, notre rapace laisse aux gabians la partie littorale, les criques ourlées de vagues, sur sa gauche, pour remonter vers le nord, où se profile la Couronne de Charlemagne, rocs blancs sur fond bleu. Les empereurs et les régimes passent, l’aigle demeure, libre dans le ciel provençal. Mais celui qui ne fait que passer, ici, ignore la somme d’efforts qu’il a fallu aux Cassidains pour maintenir et pour transmettre ce capital naturel et humain, et pour qu’il continue à vivre.

de cette planète miniature

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So let’s go and explore this world in miniature.

Catching a breath of wind, the eagle launches from its rock, leaving behind it the garrigue whose shrubs cling close to fallen rocks. At the foot of the cliff, it heads for the vast garden patiently created by man in this natural amphitheatre: a tapestry of vines so perfectly aligned that they seem to be combed out of the landscape. Around their perimeter, the ascending staircases of terraces appear to be marching on the forest above. In its silent flight, our raptor leaves the coast with its wave-fringed inlets to the residents of Gabian on its left, and turns back north towards the white peaks of the Couronne de Charlemagne (Charlemagne’s Crown) against the deep blue background of the sky. Emperors and regimes come and go, but the eagle remains, free to roam the skies of Provence. But those who simply pass by here will never see all the efforts made by the people of Cassis to keep alive and transmit this natural and human capital to ensure its continued existence.

to the south, Cassis is a true enclave in the geographic, ecological and winegrowing senses of the term. For the tourist, the first impression is one of a haven encircled by rocks. For the geologist, it is an island of limestone with varying marl content — soils so typical that the region has given its name to one of the geological sub-stages of the Lower Cretaceous period: the Bedoulian. For the ecologist, it is an island of farmland bordered by forest and garrigue, with a richly diverse population of animals and plants: naturalists have listed more than 900 species of flowers and trees, and the local wildlife includes several rare species, such as the ocellated lizard — the largest in Europe — and the Bonelli eagle. Finally, for the œnophile, Cassis means an island of white wine in an ocean of Provence rosé. But this exceptional speciality is explained by the perfect marriage between the varieties grown here, the distinctive terroir of Cassis (dominated by limestone and onshore breezes), not forgetting local preferences. Not only has this dedicated bastion of white wine resisted fashion, but it has wisely nurtured its individuality, giving it a strong and clear identity that allows it to play a distinctive role in the wine landscape of Provence.

Planet Cassis

Sheltered between its creeks to the west and the barrier of the Soubeyran Cliffs to the east, but wide open to the Mediterranean

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