Southwest France encompasses a large number of regions, some of which are very up-and-coming today, but which differ greatly in terms of grape variety and wine style and have little in common. This concerns those regions which lie to the east, southeast or south of Bordeaux. Directly bordering Bordeaux to the east is the Bergerac region, which in some respects resembles the right bank of the Gironde in terms of soil structures and climatic conditions. On 12,000 hectares, mainly red wines are produced from the varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, which definitely show very appealing qualities at much lower prices than their famous neighbours. Monbazillac is also a good sweet wine made from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle. A little further southeast lies the now small region of Cahors. At the end of the 19th century, Cahors had nearly 30,000 hectares of vines, and the strong, dark wine was often taken to Bordeaux to give more structure and colour to the wines there. However, phylloxera at the time, as well as a devastating frost in 1956, destroyed almost the entire area under vine. Today, about 4,000 hectares are again planted mostly with the Malbec grape variety, which yields a strong, dark wine that is decidedly expressive in the best cases. Gascony, south of Bordeaux, is actually known for its Armagnac, but today many good wines are also produced here from the Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Sauvignon Blanc Négrette, Fer Servadou and Tannat grape varieties. At the southern tip of the Armagnac region lies the approximately 1700 hectare region of Madiran, which is dominated above all by a great and famous name, Alain Brumont with his Château Montus. With his outstanding wines, Brumont has again been able to draw a lot of attention to the small region and the very unusual Tannat grape variety. Also noteworthy are up-and-coming regions such as Fronton, Gaillac or Irouléguy in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
