Arrufiac

Arrufiac (or Arrufiat) is a white French wine grape variety that is primarily planted in the Gascony region of South West France. It is a secondary grape in the wines from the Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC). While the grape has had a long history being blended with Petit Courbu in Gascon wines, it has only recently experienced a resurgence of interest in the late 20th century following the release of white blends from Andrė Dubosc of Producteurs Plaimont, one of the region's largest co-operative wineries, in the 1980s.

Wine regions

Arrufiac has had a long history of use in the wines of Gascony, particularly those from the AOC region of Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh near Madiran and those from the Béarn AOC in the Vic-Bilh hills. There, the grape was often blended with Petit Courbu which, along with Arrufiac's distinctive gunflint aroma, gave the wines of Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh a distinctive contrast to the white wines of nearby Jurançon. Additionally, winemakers in Gascony have blended Arrufiac with the other grapes of Jurançon, Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng.

Colossae

Colossae (/kəˈlɒsi/; Greek: Κολοσσαί) was an ancient city of Phrygia, on the Lycus, which is a tributary of the Maeander River. It was situated about 20 km (12 mi) South East of Laodicea, and near the great road from Ephesus to the Euphrates. It has never been excavated.

Some sources distinguish Colossae from nearby Chonae (Χῶναι) now called Honaz, which they attribute to the Middle Ages; others say these were successive names for the same city.

Old Times

In 396 BC, during the Persian Wars, the satrap Tissaphernes was lured to Colossae and slain by an agent of the party of Cyrus the Younger. Pliny tells that the wool of Colossae gave its name (colossinus) to the colour of the cyclamen flower. During the Hellenistic period, the town was of some mercantile importance, although by the 1st century it had dwindled greatly in size and significance.

It does not appear from his Epistle to the Colossians that St. Paul had visited this city, for it only speaks of him having heard of their faith (Col. 1:4) and since he tells Philemon of his hope to visit it upon being freed from prison (see Philemon 1:22). To judge from the Letter to the Colossians, Epaphras was a person of some importance in the Christian community there (Col. 1:7; 4:12), and tradition presents him as its first bishop. Tradition also gives Philemon as the second bishop of the see. The first historically documented bishop is Epiphanius, who was not personally at the Council of Chalcedon, but whose metropolitan bishop Nunechius of Laodicea, the capital of the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana signed the acts on his behalf.