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The French winery Chapoutier***** has planted 2,000 agaves in an abandoned vineyard in the Rhône Valley. The reason is climate change with increasingly drier summers and more intense heatwaves. Until now, Chapoutier produced a Côtes-du-Rhône Villages on the parcel of the Domaine Roc Folassière in the Gard department. As operations manager Carel Aubineau told the magazine La Revue du Vin de France, the terroir is of high quality, but no longer suitable for viticulture: it is too barren and the soil can hardly retain water anymore. Therefore, the yields are too low at around 20 hectoliters per hectare. In addition, the wines reach too high alcohol levels of 14 or 15% vol.
The initiative started by Michel Chapoutier's son Maxime is, according to Aubineau, "probably the first agave planting in France." The transition required an investment of around 12,000 euros per hectare without irrigation. The vineyard area of the Domaine Roc Folassière has shrunk from 35 to 21 hectares in recent years. In the entire Gard department, nearly 4,000 hectares of vines were cleared in spring 2025, which corresponds to ten percent of the total area.
The variety used, Agave Americana, is one of about 30 varieties from which mezcal is produced in Mexico. The goal of the Chapoutier family is to plant another hectare of agaves each year until the total area in Gard and at the Domaine Bila-Haut in the Pyrénées-Orientales reaches ten hectares. Aubineau explains that they could also have planted "olive, pomegranate, or pistachio trees, but with the agave, we stay in our core market." While the leaves are used for the production of cosmetics or textiles, two to five liters of pure alcohol can be distilled from the heart of the agave. This must not carry the protected designations of origin Tequila or Mezcal. But since it takes about ten years for the agaves to mature and become usable, they still have some time for naming: "Maybe it will be called Chapoutila."
(al)
More on the topic:
Winemaker in Württemberg Plants Olive Trees Instead of Vines