Mauzac holds a founding document of sparkling wine. In 1531, the Benedictine monks of Saint-Hilaire, near Limoux, recorded wine that fizzed in its flask — blanquette bottled before its fermentation had finished, a century before champagne learned to sparkle on purpose. The grape, called blanquette locally for the white down of its leaves, has anchored the ancestral method of Limoux ever since.
Its other home is Gaillac, where it makes the gently prickling perlé, rustic dry whites and honeyed sweet ones. Everywhere it announces itself the same way — cider apple and pear skin, an orchard scent no other southern white carries. Late-budding and late-ripening, it survived phylloxera and fashion alike as the stubborn signature of two Occitan vineyards.