The region (French: Sud-Ouest) is one of the oldest wine-growing areas in France. Geographically, it includes the area between the Massif Central, which forms the eastern border, and the Atlantic coast in the west, as far south as the Pyrenees on the border with Spain. Administratively, it comprises the former regions of Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine, which existed before the territorial reform in 2016.
Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) first referred to the Roman province he conquered between the River Garonne and the Pyrenees as Aquitaine (French: Guyenne). Emperor Charlemagne (742-814) incorporated it into the Frankish Empire. After a chequered history as an independent county, the addition of Gascony and then under English rule from the middle of the 12th century, the region only finally became part of France in 1453.
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Thorsten Rahn
Restaurantleiter, Sommelier, Weindozent und Autor; Dresden