On this late summer morning, a fresh wind blows in the land of Gilbert Bischeri. The day before, September 13, it snowed even a little higher up, in the Cévennes mountains. In the small village of Aujac, the Gardois come to inspect their vineyards without worrying too much about this cold snap. “The grapes are doing very well, we will harvest them in October, not before.” “, he says while tasting the berry from a vineyard that dates back to 1870. Here, the septuagenarian has been cultivating for thirty years about 800 square meters inherited from his family, in which he created a control plot, “a vine greenhouse”, said. There they grow grape varieties that all have the same peculiarity: it is prohibited to market their nectar under the name “wine.”
But Gilbert Bischeri, like other winegrowers in the sector, resists. Banned grape varieties have even become their workhorse. In this area of the Cevennes, located at the foot of Mont-Lozère, Gard and Ardèche, and where vines flourish on the slopes, in plots that are often narrow and inaccessible to vehicles, rebellious winegrowers are fighting to rehabilitate these hybrid varieties ( coming from the crossing of European and American vines), banned in France since 1934.
The ban affects six grape varieties (Clinton, Isabelle, Noah, Othello, Herbemont, Jacquez) that were imported from the United States in the 19th century.my century. “Due to the overproduction of wine, the government banned them. They were uprooted throughout France under the pretext that they drove people crazy. Everywhere except the Cévennes, explains Danny Peregrine, director of the Cévennes PGI (protected geographical indication). To the gendarmes who came to check their vines, the Cévenols responded: “Pull them up if you want, but we won’t,” because here we don’t uproot what we have planted. »
Despite the ban, this culture was passed down from generation to generation in this poor region where men worked in the mines. “These are vines that the miners grew on trellises for their family consumption, explains Denis Verdier, president of Vins des Cévennes IGP. These robust and easy-to-work plants lend themselves well to cultivation in rural areas of small mountains. »
Nectars sold discreetly
Currently, associations such as Forgotten Fruits Networks, led by Gilbert Bischeri, or Mémoire de la vigne, created by Hervé Garnier in Ardèche, are working to publicize these grape varieties. But productions must always be sold discreetly. Gilbert Bischeri, who has made forty-seven vintages and produced six hundred bottles a year, explains: “They are vintages that we cannot sell, that is why we offer them in exchange for being members of the association, or we have them tasted. » These associations, which are at the origin of a competition for prohibited grape varieties, have aroused the interest of those responsible for the Cévennes PGI. “At first they told us: ‘Let’s not waste time on this, it’s not good.’ explains Danny Peregrine, but the tastings convinced us otherwise. »
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