Lunel is the centre of the Muscat de Lunel appellation for sweet golden vin doux naturel made from muscat blanc à petits grains grapes grown on potentially interesting infertile inland soils between Montpellier and Nîmes. Yields are low and vinification techniques improving although many local vine-growers have been more interested in developing lower alcohol, dry Muscats or wines that qualify as languedoc aoc. A single co-operative is responsible for almost all the wine produced, which, as any geographer might suspect, tastes like a cross between the Muscats of frontignan and st-jean-de-minervois. Lunel’s historical claim to fame is less convincing than Frontignan’s: its Muscat was dispatched to console Napoléon on the island of St Helena. The town does call itself the Cité du Muscat, however.
