These are where the gourmet, discerning customer is attracted and where he buys his local produce. Our smalls towns and villages have their year punctuated by weekly markets.
During the winter in our region, trade decreases, but traditional markets are given a new lease of life. Rearers of fat farm poultry come to sell their finely presented produce, after long months of preparation and care devoted to their ducks and geese. All the end-products are approved by the Food and Hygiene Department. They appear in local market places from November to the end of March for everyone's delight.
In Périgueux, the capital of Foie Gras, in the heart of the old town on the Place Saint-Louis, fifty or so farm producers display their Foie Gras every Wednesday and Saturday from the 11th November to 31st March.
Thiviers
compares favourably with its sister town, with fat meat and truffle
markets held on Saturday mornings.
In Ribérac, an arable and cereal-producing area of our department, many rearers present plump poutry on Friday mornings.
In Saint-Astier, Thursday mornings see local farm-raised foies gras and "magrets" displayed in the old "halle", adapted for the purpose.
In Thenon very early on a Tuesday morning, the covered market, place de la Mairie, is full of producers and customers.
In Excideuil, gateway to the "Causse Truffié" (Truffle region on the Causses) and Limousin, a small group of farmers sell their wares on Thursday mornings.
In Terrasson, Thursday mornings in winter are warmed by the presence of farmers selling fat poultry.
Sarlat, with its narrow streets, is embellished further on Saturday mornings, when you can find farm-reared fat poultry on its large market.
Bergerac. On a Wednesday morning you will find, here and there between the fruit and vegetables, farm foie gras, displayed next to a good bottle of wine.
Vergt. This small town, capital of the strawberry country, provides a special place for fat poultry on Friday mornings. One can admire, but not touch, Foie Gras, Rillettes, Confits, magrets, etc.
Le Bugue, on the banks of the Vézère, offers farm produce to customers on Tuesday mornings.
Tocane-Saint-Apre starts the week with its market on a Monday morning.
In Montpon-Ménestérol, the Route Nationale 89 sees market stalls and farmers along its length one morning a week, on Wednesdays.
Mussidan is a more peaceful place now that the main road (RN 89) has been diverted, but it is still a busy town with its farm market on Saturday mornings.
Brantôme, called the Venice of Périgord, welcomes market stalls alongside the farm stalls on Friday mornings.
Sorges, Piégut-Pluviers, Nontron, and many others small towns have a farm market either every week, every month or even once a year.
It was, in all probability, the Romans who first planted wines on Bergerac soil, and as early as the firs century A.D., the poet Ausonne, vine grower and Consul, spoke highly of the wines harvested on the banks of the Dordogne.
History has borne out his opinions. For, like the greatest wine-producing regions of the world, Bergerac combines all the conditions required for the birth of a great wine district.
It boasts a warm climate, that of the South-Western France, tempered by the coolness of the river. Hillsides and plateaux combine the advantages of full sun and excellent drainage. the poor quality of stony or chalky soil becomes an asset, as the vines struggle to establish themselves, thus developing the rarest flavours.
But
all natural wealth would be nothing without Man's skill in blending
grape varieties (cépages) and soils, the careful tending of
the vines, and the art of vinification and maturing.
In the Bergerac region, this art is some 2000 years old; it is a mark of the experience of generations of wine-makers, that it has been cultivated almost to a fine art.
Today these people are carrying on traditions, whilst combining them with the latest scientific oenological innonvations. Enormous progress has been made, giving priority to quality, with the actual harvesting of the grapes, bottling on the premises, and carrying out vinification and maturing using new natural techniques.
The Bergerac wine maker has inherited a thousand years of exchange and travel over his land. He has an inherent sense of hospitality marked by his simplicity, good heartedness, and sometimes plain down-to-earth realism. All this tends to make us forget one other fundamental feature of his character: tenacity.
Wines play an important part in Perigord's
gastronomy and culture.
Althrough vineyards covered most of the Dordogne before phylloxera
wiped nearly all of them out, they are now concentrated in the
Bergerac district.
Wine production certainly now figures as the largest and most dynamic activity in the local agricultural economy.
Production is varied as it encompasses all types of wine: red, dry or sweet whites, young wines or wines for laying down. This variety and diversity of soils is recognized in the range of appelations.
With a producton of 500,000 to 550,000 hecto litres per annum, red and whites are currently harvested equally whereas in the 50s, 80% of the harvest was (mostly sweet) whites. All of the AOC(*) wines are in and around the Dordogne Valley and fit quite nicely into fairly distinctive areas.
South Dordogne: North from Eymet to the Dordogne valley and West from Issigeac to Saussignac. This is the area where one finds the largest proportion of vineyards, on the South-facing slopes of the Dordogne, where vines are about the only crop grown. The Montbazillac aud Saussignac Appellations are in this area. The soil is chalky clay, getting chalkier as you move South
Northern Bergerac: West from Mouleydier to Sainte-Foy. Production here is of modest proportions, mainly reds, on a small scale, often mixed-crop farms surrounded by woodland. A notable exception is the Pécharmant district, another area where wines are grown almost exclusively.
The West: Villefranche de Longchat. This district produces the white Montravel, but also has a sizeable harvest of Bergerac reds. It is also an area of small scale farms, widely using cooperatives.The soil and lanscapes remind one of a Bordeaux enclave within the Bergerac AOC(*) rather than a district of Perigord. It is only separated from the Bordeaux AOCs(*) and Entre-Deux-Mers by the river. Minzac and Villefranche lie alongside the Côtes de Castillon and Saint-Emilion districts.
Bergerac
and Côtes de Bergerac: These are harvested thoughout the
AOC(*) area. The grape varieties
used are the traditional Bordeaux varieties: Merlot, Cabernet Franc
and Sauvignon, and include Malbec, which is better known in the
Cahors region. They are generally fine, supple wines, and a smell of
soft fruit, low in tannin and should be drunk within two or three
years.
The Côtes de Bergerac, as they adhere to ever tighter aproval
criteria, are more structured and richer wines for laying down, and
can be kept for 5 or more years.
The enthousiast will be able to find excellent wines on visiting producers "chais", which are exceptional value for money.
Pécharmant: this district is also known as the Saint-Emilion of the Bergerac (a mere 200 hectares), with soils, exposures and a low yield affording it exceptional character.
These are concentrated, rich wines for long laying down: the extraction process can be longer to give traditional tannic wines for keeping, or shorter for lighter wines better suited to the modern palate.
More than half the crop is matured in new barrels, imparting admirable body and vanilla flavours to this wine.
These are a fringe production in our region, generally produced by "saignée" or bleeding (a short extraction time of 24 hours at the most), using the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. These wines are best consumed young and chilled. They flatter the palate, and are refreshing and flavoursome.
Bergerac
and Montravel: these wines are constantly being improved thanks
to oenologic progress. The main grape variety is Sauvignon, either in
isolation or in association with Muscadelle or Sémillon. This
variety is best known for its intense and fine aroma of boxwood,
black-currant and ivy.
"Classical" dry whites are fresh and fruity, very slightly sparkling, and should really be consumed within the year. The "New Wines", obtained through extracting, fermenting and maturing on the lees, are fuller-bodied, with more complex flavours, and can improve with keeping for several years.
Côtes de Bergerac, Saussignac, Haut-Montravel, Rosette, and Côtes de Montravel: these well-balanced wines, which used to be the traditional Bergerac offering, are worth coming back to. Thanks to oenological progress, the over-powering sulphury taste and chaptalization have disappeared. These are often fruity, fine wines, leaving the palate smooth. Serve well chilled either with a meal or on their own.
Montbazillac: these are great sweet wines, owing their existence to the famous "noble rot" concentrating the sugar in the grape. The grapes are then picked in successive batches, and only the finest are chosen. Montbazillac wines are the ones reaching the highest quality of over-ripeness. Great years such as 89 or 90 can produce wine of up to 24° (in case you are wondering, only 15° or 16° turn into alcohol). These are full-bodied, generous wines, highly flavoured and ageing well. They are never marketed under a year old, and gain in complexity and quality if kept before drinking.
They differ considerably from other sweet wines in their distinctive tastes of acacia honey and roast meat.
(*) Appellation d'origine contrôlée
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