Hérault (French pronunciation: [eʁo];[3] Occitan: Erau, [eˈɾaw]) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France.

At the beginning of the 20th century, viticulture in the wine-growing region was devastated by a slump in sales combined with disease affecting the vines.

The catastrophic frost of the winter of 1956 damaged the olive trees, and the olive-growing regions did not recover until the late 1980s.

[5] Hérault is part of the region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Tarn, Aveyron, Gard, and the Mediterranean (Gulf of Lion) on the south.

The department is geographically very diverse, with beaches in the south, the Cévennes mountains in the north, and agricultural land in between.

These range from the southern foothills of the Massif Central, to the Mediterranean Sea, through the areas of garrigue and the low plain of Languedoc wine.

The department of Hérault is crossed by several rivers that originate in the southern foothills of the Massif Central and empty into the Mediterranean Sea, flowing more-or-less from north to south over a relatively short distance from high elevation.

The area of Hérault near the town of Lodève is the geographical antipode point of Chatham Island off the east coast of New Zealand.

Nevertheless, the sea protects the coastal areas from the extremes of heat waves in summer, but also frosts in winter.

The department has a favorable climate, excellent exposure, a wide variety of soils and many varieties of grape: all these assets result in generous, sometimes robust, wines with a wide aromatic palette In Hérault, the cultivation of shellfish produces 8,300 tons of oysters (10% of the national production) and 5,900 tons of mussels a year.