" Wine is made on the vine and not in the winery"

70% of our vineyards are on slopes that are largely composed of limestone or clayey-limestone from the Oligocene epoch, with a little on micaceous granite. The remaining 30% are essentially on alluvial fans, consisting of sand and pebbles in a very dry micro-climate.

We work the vineyards bio-dynamically, that's to say with activated preparations, according to the influence of the planets and the apogee and perigee of the moon. No synthesized chemical product is used, neither in the vineyards nor in the winery.

The aim of this is to keep the initial balance of the grapes undisturbed, and not to mask the effect of the vintages, so that the wine can show its “terroir” to the maximum and to preserve the energy it has acquired (from the bio-dynamic culture of the vines).

The soils are ploughed and hoed between November and July and then we mow the grass from August to the harvest.

The vines are close planted at a density of 6000 to 8000 plants per hectare to create maximum competition for the roots. This forces them to delve as deeply as possible.

No weedkillers or chemical fertilisers are used. If needed, we just use compost we make ourselves.

Treatments are carried out using plant extracts :- nettle, horsetail, osier, yarrow, camomile and valerian. If there is bad fungal attack, copper is also used.

Naturally, each variety, which is the signature of its terroir, is harvested apart, the grapes are sorted by a team of 6 to 10 people who in turn remove the few remaining damaged berries or grapes gathered by the harvesters.

Each wine is then gently pressed in two pneumatic presses for 6 to 16 hours.

Thanks to the work that has previously been carried out, no chaptalisation, no fining, no enzyme treatment, and no yeast addition are needed.

The different lots of juice are put into 40 to 50 hl vats.
A light racking is carried out after 12 hours (to remove coarse lees if needed).
Racking, filtering and bottling are always carried out on a waning moon.
Then the musts are put into casks, half hogsheads, barrels or stainless steel vats for the fermentation, which can last from 2 to 12 months for dry or slightly sweet wines, and even longer for the sweet wines. All casks and vats are thermostatically controlled.

The wines are racked about 1 month before being bottled, at which point a light filtration is carried out, followed by the bottling.

*****