France has no shortage of quality wine, and of quality wine regions. It seems like everywhere you might go in the country, you can find incredible local wine. To be fair, basically every glass of the house wine in any restaurant I’ve ever had has been good, if not great. 90% of the bottles I’ve purchased from the grocery store – where I tend to give myself a €10 cap – have been lovely, even those for under €5.

But there is something different about tasting wine at a winery itself, and getting the chance to support a small, often family-owned and run, business whose wines I may not necessarily be able to find – and would definitely not know to look for – at my local shop or bistro.

It can be a challenge to find a good local winery to do a tasting. How do you know what to look for, where to go, or even how to contact them with so many being so small? Enter the local tourism agency, in this case based in the town of – and wine region of – Gaillac. For €30 per person, they will set you up with tours and tastings at two local wineries (and a snack at the second; for us a charcuterie board that was incredible). All you have to do is show up!

Showing up can be a challenge. Ideally, visitors are expected to have their own vehicles to use. (I am lucky and have cousins here in the Toulouse area who provided the transportation and great company!) But there are several well-regarded wineries just outside of the town itself, which is under an hour by train from Toulouse. So I would guess that if one explains to the service that transportation will be limited to public transport and walking, they will be able to organize something appropriately. After all, each itinerary is individually set up via email.

Let’s talk a bit about Gaillac as a wine region. One of the main differences between French wines and those of, say, California is that California wines are known by their grape varietals (Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, etc…) while here in France, they are given regional appellations, with the winery then naming their wines/blends and listing the grapes used. So the wines from Gaillac (and the wine region surrounding it) will all be labeled as Gaillac no matter the grape. It will be added that they are part of an AOP (appellation d’origine protegee, basically meaning a protected origin guarantee) so you know that 100% of the grapes are local. And for many wineries, it will also give the family name of the wine producer, which I think is a nice touch.

So does anything distinguish Gaillac other than geography? For one, its history. Gaillac as a name traces back to Gaelic, or Gaul. And so does its wine. Wine has been made here since before the Romans conquered the province, and has continued through Roman times, the Middle Ages (where it was typically made by abbeys in the region), and through to modernity. So while the Gaillac AOP only dates to 1922, the history of wine-making here is actually one of the earliest documented in all of France.

Secondly, the geography of the region is more than just a spot on the map. Gaillac is characterized by a couple of things. One is the regions’s unique location roughly equidistant between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where winds alternate cold (from the Atlantic) and warm/humid (from the Mediterranean side), with the area averaging close to 300 windy days per year. Add to that the fact that the soil in the Tam Valley includes clay, limestone shelf, and pebble, and you can get a pretty wide variety of grapes to grow.

After picking a day and reaching out to the tourist service above, we were scheduled for two tastings, both in the afternoon since we wanted to spend the morning in nearby Albi for me to visit the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum (click here to read about Albi). First up was Mas d’Aurel. Here, we had a full tour – and an incredibly thorough walkthrough – of the entire operation, with a focus on (although not a demonstration of since early March isn’t exactly prime season for grapes) their tractor-towed vibrating harvest machines that can, through varying vibrations, cause only the ripe grapes to fall. Cool, right? At least if my rather basic level French was actually able to comprehend correctly.

The tasting went from whites to reds, about seven in all. I absolutely loved two of them, so each (a red and a white) came home with me for remarkably affordable prices.

The second tasting was at Chateau de Mayragues, and was a totally different experience. Here our tour and tasting were done by the owner himself, a truly wonderful Scottish/French man who grew up here at the castle (more a manor house than castle but it’s super impressive) that his parents spent more than 45 years restoring! (It is also a BnB and I think if French country living is something you want to experience, you couldn’t ask for much more.) This was less a tour and more a conversation with an old friend.

Their wine offerings (we started with sparkling, then went to white, rose, red, and dessert wines) have playful names and intriguing blends, including single varietal bottles of grapes not normally done in pure form (like Gamay) and a pure red blend of everything they have if there is a winter during which below freezing temperatures prevent the grapes from reaching their fullest potential (called 23 degrees for the Fahrenheit temperature of one such freeze).

Four more bottles joined my new friends from the prior winery, and so the advantage of spending such a long time in the area could be truly realized by being able to drink all of this before leaving Toulouse.

Can I say with certainty that Gaillac is a top French wine region? No. I’ve tasted at so few. But with help from a remarkable deal via the tourist agency, this one is wholly possible to reach and experience from a major city. And I’m so glad I did. Santé!

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