BANYULS: THE VINE AND THE WINE
We went to Banyuls to see how the wine was made. The vine was established here several centuries before 0 B.C
The climate is hot and dry, with a wind, the Tramontane, which prevents many diseases in the vine.
The vineyard is cultivated in terraces, on a schist ground. The vines are separated by low walls of stone (there are 6000 kilometers of them) and by channels for the water (built in the Middle Ages).
The work of the vine is still done by hand, because of the relief.
At the cellar of Templiers, they explained to us that they could make table wine or sweet aperitif wine, created at the 13th century by a Catalan doctor, Arnau de Villanova.
Some sweet wines are out-of-date in the open air, in barrels.
