Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/46939
Southern Exposure WE EXPLORE THE ROUSSILLON AND FIND A LOT TO LIKE by David Gadd Most Americans know that Languedoc-Roussillon is somewhere in the south of France—but where, exactly? While consumers may have toted home bottles—gener- ally good values—from this region, most would fi nd it about as easy to place on a map as Tajikistan. On a recent trip, THE TASTING PANEL not only experienced fi rsthand the lay of this historic and wine-laden land, but also learned just where Languedoc stops . . . and the Roussillon begins. The Roussillon is French Catalonia. The name, from the root word for "red," refl ects the region's rust-colored iron oxide soils. Snug against the Spanish border, but separated from the Iberian Peninsula politically by the vagaries of history and geographically by the Pyrenees, it still retains its Catalan language and customs. Pablo Picasso, in exile from Franco, moved across the mountains to alluring seaside Collioure in the Roussillon, while his Catalan compatriot, Salvador Dalí, once had a mystical vision in which the waiting room of the railway station in Perpignan, the region's historic capital, became the center of the universe. A village in the Roussillon. 82 / the tasting panel / november 201 1