The Vineyard

 

Our vineyard is located about 15km from the sea to the north of the town of Hyeres. The 25 hectare property is located on a hillside at the western end of the enormous Maures Forest. A small stream originates here and has given its name to the place: « la règue des botes ».
The soil is composed of shale that is called blue phyllade from the Réal Martin river. This rock that looks like slate with silver, blue or rust-colored streaks is reputed to be very difficult to cultivate and gives very poor soil that is nevertheless suitable for quality wine growing.

Organic farming

 

Our hillside vineyard is composed of Black Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cinsault and Cabernet and is spread over 9 terraced hectares. Winds and sun protect grapes from disease. Because of this we have naturally turned to organic grape-growing.
The rest of the hillside is delightful scrubland with wild herbs and Mediterranean bushes, cork-oak trees, olive trees and Aleppo pines that are home to a multitude of animals as well as insects that are vital to the natural and long term balance of this little paradise. It is quite common to come across a hare, a fox or a partridge. Large lizards that run on their hind legs can also be found but it is a much rarer and more surprising experience.
In the winter sheep happily munch on the weeds that grow between the rows of vines. In the summer we pull weeds up by hand or with a plough as weed-killer is obviously forbidden on our property.  
Spring and summer pass by to the rhythm of the pruning and debudding of the vines during the long sunny days. The harvest is done completely by hand at the end of August by a happy group of people that get up at the crack of dawn and work until midday as it is too hot to work in the afternoons.