Bistro Freres Wines                AREA    | home | area | history of its wine | our story | vineyards | purchase | contact | | 2004 harvest | 2005 harvest | early 2006 report | The Area The Fenouilledes (the French pronounce it fen-ou-we-yeds) – a derivative of the French word for the fennel that grows wild throughout the area – is a slice of the Roussillon wine region. The Fenouilledes valley is a place of stark and rugged beauty carved by the arid climate and Tremontane winds.The valley lies between craggy hillsides topped with ancient Cathar castles and the foothills of the Pyrenees. It has a Mediterranean climate perfect for ripening grapes. There are 325 days of sunshine a year, but during the other 40 days it rains hard, allowing the vines to hang on in the rocky soils and subsist for decades without irrigation.   Bistro Freres produces wines from the Fenouilledes area in the southernmost part of France,  30 miles north of Spain and 20 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Crisp, dry  and fragrant white wines made from Grenache blanc, Grenache gris,  and Carignan blanc grapes, and deep, complex and silky red wines made from old-vine Grenache noir and Carignan are available. Viticulture began here around 700 B.C., but, as the locals tell it, wine making didn’t take off until after Hannibal passed through the valley (with 50,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 37 elephants) in 218 B.C. on his way to Italy. In any case, growing grapes is not new to the Fenouilledes. For many years, the region was best known for growing grapes of such strength and intensity that they were shipped all over France to improve wines of more celebrated regions. More recently the area has been known for producing a sweet red wine called Maury, delicious as an aperitif, or as the perfect match with chocolate.