Faugères AOC

Local wine was in fact mainly used to produce a type of eau de vie, using a distilling method from the Charente region, that was previously unknown in the Languedoc.

The name of the AOC comes from the village Faugères, whose earliest known written form, dating back to 934 AD, was de Falgarias.

The Departmental Director of Agriculture, in collaboration with 'SAFER' (French regional societies for the development of land and rural establishments), have experimented setting up vineyards along contour lines, which serves to limit the effects of erosion.

This schist is metamorphic rock, the result of excessive pressure on clay deposits during the Paleozoic Era and of the formation of the Massif Central to the North.

Schist is characterised by its capacity to retain large amounts of water (up to a third of its volume) and its heat-storing properties, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night.

A geological curiosity exists in the Cabrerolles commune - a meteor crater resulting from the impact of a twenty metre-wide bolite[check spelling] meteorite circa 10,000 years ago.