Chasselas de Moissac

Chasselas as a varietal is usually a wine grape, but around Moissac, where the cultivation was promoted in the Middle Ages by the great abbey of Saint-Pierre de Moissac, Chasselas is a much prized table grape.

The arrival of the railroad in 1858 (in spite of the engineers initially wanting to sacrifice the abbey itself for the tracks—after all, it’s only the most important example of Romanesque art in southwest France!) helped to promote the grapes on a national level.

Before the Second World War, Moissac was briefly popular as a spa for the ‘grape cure’, and in 1930 even built an Art Deco ‘Uvarium’ kiosk on the banks of the Tarn, now awaiting a new use or a new grape cure fad.