Mont Tauch - Tuchan

Fitou producing village of Tuchan in the south of France

Named after a roman legionnaire called Tuscius, the village of Tuchan is home to the Mont Tauch Cooperative. In fact, the original building was established here as early as 1913. Tuchan’s 800 residents make up the largest community for kilometres in the remote Corbières hills of southern France.

The village is set at the foot of the Mont Tauch mountain and is surrounded by a vast area of natural vegetation or garrigue which covers any land where vines have not yet been planted.

Tuchan also includes a number of domains, chapels and castles, which became part of the village only after the French Revolution in 1789.

Situated above the village, the12th century chapel of Notre Dame de Faste is said to have been erected under the patronage of a group of sailors, who, lost at sea in a storm only found their way home thanks to a light shinning from the slopes of Mont Tauch.

To the north west of Tuchan there is the 12th century castle of Ségure and the to the north east, the ancient fortified village of Domneuve, first mentioned in the 9th century. On the hill above Domneuve, the village is garded by the medieval castle of Aguilar. Once a fortress on the border with the kingdom of Spain, this 11th century relic is a strong reminder of the area’s troubled history.

Tuchan yesterday

The castle of Aguilar was handed over to the crusader’s army of Simon de Montfort during the Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1211. In 1260, the castle is donated to Louis IX, king of France, by its original owner Olivier de Termes.

Further, following the Corbeil treaty in 1258, Aguilar became a royal fortress on the frontline in the war with Spain.

For several centuries, Tuchan was victim to regular incursions from Spanish forces. In 1525, the whole village was even taken as prisoner in the Castillet prison in Perpignan. It wasn’t until 1659 and the Pyrénées treaty, which moved the border further south, that Tuchan lost its strategic position.

Throughout the middle ages, Tuchan’s principal production was olive oil and wool. Indeed, olive trees abounded in the area and thousands of goats and sheep roamed through the fields and garrigue of Mont Tauch.

It wasn’t until the 19th century and the rapid growth of the wine industry, that Tuchan along with many villages of the Corbières, started to focus solely on winegrowing.

Tuchan vineyards

Out of the four villages of Mont Tauch, the vineyards of Tuchan cover the largest surface area. They are planted on very diverse soils around the Mont Tauch, and particularly limestone soils on the “bas du Tauch”, at the foot of the mountain.