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The history of the Minervois goes back a long way. First mentions of its name date from early in the ninth century when reference is made to some lands being "in territorio Narbonense, suburbio Minerbense". Minerve, referred to as 'Castrum Menerba', was the civil adminstrative capital of its region. The boundaries of the Minervois at that time are not known but the western limits were marked by the region of the Cabardes which is today just north and west of Carcassonne.
Later references, in the later middle ages, list 44 communities as forming the administrative area of the Minervois :
in the present day Aude - Argens, Azille, Badens, Castelnau-d'Aude, Caunes, Citou, Conilhac, Fontcouverte, Gibaleaux, Homps, Jouarre, La Redorte, Laure, Lespinassiere, Lezignan, Luc, Montbrun, Montrabech, Moux, Pepieux, Rieux, Rocquecourbe, Serame, Tourouzelle, Trausse, Villeneuve-les-Chanoines
in the present day Herault- Aigne, Aigues-Vives, Azillanet, Beaufort, Boisset, Cassagnoles, Cesseras, Felines, Ferrals-les-Montagnes, La Liviniere, Minerve, Moussans, Olonzac, Oupia, Siran, Rieussec, Saint-Julien, Velieux
You will recognise many of these names in the listing of the communes which form the Minervois of today. But perhaps of more significant interest is the extent of the territory at that time. It stretched from Moussans in the north to Fontcouverte in the south and from Villeneuve-les-Chanoines in the west to Aigues-Vives in the east. Some of the communities have become very much reduced in size and do not reach the status of 'commune' today.
Geographically, the Minervois is in the Languedoc and lies just north of the motorway between Carcassonne and Narbonne, that is between the Black Mountain and the river Aude. From east to west it covers about 50 kms and from north to south about 25 km. The Black Mountain and the Aude are both oriented roughly east-west and between them , we find three parallel regions each quite different in character. The southernmost is the plain, good arable land with a higher density of occupation by man. Next, moving to the north, we have a zone of poor limestone plateaux and finally the northernmost of the three zones is the mountain region opening onto the Central Massif of France and with a much lower population density.
The different wine producing territories and their soil types or terroirs within the Minervois are covered in more detail a little later.
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