Sainte-Croix-du-Mont

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The commune of Sainte-Croix-du-Mont has a pronounced and sometimes steep relief, with high points reaching 120 metres in altitude, combining the foot of the slope, the hillside, and the plateau.
• The limestone cliff dominating the Garonne reveals a sandy limestone covered by a layer rich in Ostrea aquitanica forming an oyster bed, into which caves have been carved for wine storage.
• The Tertiary geological formations comprise a base of Astéries limestone overlain by sandy-gravelly decalcification clays, creating an environment well suited to viticulture.
• On south- and south-west-facing slopes, soils are brown and more or less calcareous, sometimes containing fossil oyster fragments, as well as clayey gravel soils considered highly suitable for the vine.
• At the confluence of the Ciron and the Garonne, the moisture of morning mists alternates with warm, sunny periods on the south- and south-west-facing hillsides, favouring the development of Botrytis cinerea.

• After the vineyard was destroyed by phylloxera at the end of the nineteenth century, the vines were replanted with Sémillon as the overwhelmingly dominant variety, accompanied by Sauvignon and Muscadelle.
• In 1908, producers founded the Syndicat des Propriétaires de Grands Vins Blancs de Sainte-Croix-Du-Mont, and the appellation d'origine contrôlée was subsequently recognised by decree in 1936.
• The ripe grapes, covered by the bloom of Botrytis, dry out slowly under the combined effect of sunshine and the dry northerly and north-easterly winds that are frequent in October and November, promoting the concentration of sugars and aromatic compounds.
• The harvest workers manually select the rôti (shrivelled) berries vine by vine during a first sorting pass (trie), followed by two or three further tries decided according to the alternating weather conditions.

• The colour of the wines is golden and slowly turns amber with age, a colour evolution also described by Wikipedia.
• The wines frequently develop aromas of white fruit and flowers when young, and sometimes aromas of candied fruit and citrus as they age, accompanied by toasted notes when they have been aged in barrel.

• In clay-limestone soils the concentration of the grapes is slow, taking ten to twelve days, whereas in gravel soils it is faster, which requires close attention to the timing of each trie.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF) — approved 29 décembre 2025, JORF 9 janvier 2026
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — CIVB