“French agriculture used to be wholly organic” say the French wine experts Bettane & Desseauve in the latest issue of Terre de Vins , “but in the 20th century, when a war-torn country had to be rebuilt, and a hungry and thirsty population needed to forget all its privations, intensive and systematic use of chemical products became current.  Little by little, the country’s private and collective conscience slowly awoke to the dangers of these products”

“But a ‘bio’ wine does not necessarily mean a good wine” they add.  “The essential is to remember the wine.   Our winners show the immense progress that has been made in this sphere, where regions like Alsace, Languedoc and the Loire are the real engines of a new philosophy.”

One Rives-Blanques wine featured amongst the top six Languedoc wines selected.  And interestingly, 15% of the wines chosen from the world’s largest wine region were made by Vinifilles vineyards, the female winegrowers of Languedoc-Roussillon.