Home > Things to see > The wine

"The bee doesn't have any softer honey: it shines and dances in the glass like a limpid diamond and holds an aroma of the rosemary, heather and the myrtle that cover our hills" (F. Mistral - Calendal - song III)

Wine has been cultivated in Cassis since antiquity. This culture continued throughout the Middle Age according to a text from 1199 . King René I, a royal wine grower, promoted the wine industry on his return to Provence in 1492. It is under his reign that varieties of Muscat grapes from Italy were introduced, particularly into Cassis. Year by year, the people from Cassis extended the vineyards into other territories and at the end of 16th century, the communal records mention vineyards in the northern and eastern districts which were added to those that already existed in the south-east. At the end of the 19th century, Cassis had become a wine-growing zone of excellence in an area where the vine already had a long history. At around 1865 -1870, the Cassis vineyards that had already been tested by the Oidium fungus suffered devastation by the insect "Phylloxera vastatrix". Completely destroyed, the vineyards took sixty years to recover and didn't really prosper until the 20th century. It was not until 1929, with a production of 292 hectolitres, that the vineyards had fully recovered to the former glory that they had known before the Phylloxéra epidemic