Small vineyard of 5 ha located in Languedoc in the lands not far from Sète in the Mediterranean. Its altitude is that of Mont Saint Clair: 183 m.
The vines are in the commune of Saint-Pargoire in the place called “La Fon de Lacan”. These are old scrubland clearings.
15 terraced plots facing North/North-East.
Climate: hot and dry Mediterranean with the mistral as the prevailing wind, sometimes softened by sea entries.
Grapes: Chasselas and Marsanne in white, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault, in red (Marselan and 4 rows of Tempranillo, Aubun for the anecdote).
Soils: mostly limestone, partly made up of white earth very rich in magnesium: lacustrine limestone. And very shallow more clayey soils with small gravels. The bedrock is never far away.
Vegetation: the influence of the garrigue is strong: euphorbia, holm oak, kermes oak, cottony cistus, juniper, cade, thyme, rosemary, aspic lavender, redoul, boxwood, tree heather, broom, pine, arbutus, honeysuckle, traveler madder , sarsaparilla.
Le Biotope: When we talk about natural wine, are we talking about nature? Natural wine comes first and foremost from nature. The plots are isolated, with no vineyard neighbors and no neighbors in chemical cultivation. The valley also hosts a farm with goats for 20 years in organic farming. Our only neighbors are horses, partridges, birds of prey, ocellated lizards and unfortunately endangered wild rabbits. The vines find their breath in all the surrounding nature which is very rich and wild in essences and scents of the garrigue. It is for this reason that I fell in love with these vines and I fully claim my “vin de garrigue”.
Cultivation: desire to promote plant cover. Minimum tillage to promote balance between soil life and vine resistance to drought. Manual interventions in the spring.
Treatments: simple, rarefied and facilitated by observations, low yields and isolation of the vineyard.
Everything is necessarily manual and artisanal due to the configuration and size of the plots.
The limiting factors for cultivation are not vine diseases, but rather drought due to global warming.
Vinification: as naturally as possible, respecting my work and my grapes. The doses of SO2 added are either nil or minimal when we want to encourage native yeasts.
I have the pleasure of vinifying outdoors in an open cellar. My little luxury is my vertical press which exerts low pressure on small quantities of grapes with good press quality at the end.
This seems important to me for the texture and the silkiness of the wines.
We talk a lot about SO2 in wines, but we must not forget that keeping Mediterranean red wines is above all a question of harvesting at maturity. It is the balance between tannins, alcohol and acidity that will create the structure of the wine and that will ensure its quality, its ability to be aged in the bottle.
After 10 years I can say that the terroir of this sublime scrubland gives the wines a wild and free force.
Natural winemakers, here's the information we need to register you on Raisin.
DESCRIPTION OF YOUR DOMAINE
Please provide the information about your estate including location, size, treatments used,
horses, tractors, harvests, etc. within 300-500 characters. This description will be added to your profile.
CERTIFICATIONS (ORGANIC, BIODYNAMIC) :
Please send us all certifications (organic, biodynamic, etc.). If your estate is not certified,
please explain why and describe your farming practices.
INFORMATION ON EACH OF THE WINES YOU PRODUCE:
wine name
color
grape variety(ies) by year(s)
appellation
sparkling
label photo (.pdf format - printer's proof)
volume of free and total sulfur
analysis of each vintage
Is your wine from Négociant activities?
PHOTOS :
a photo of you (the winemaker)
photos of the winery and cellar (between 6 and 12)