The Domain

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The vineyard plots are spread over the communes of La Palme Roquefort-des-Corbières and Leucate on clay soils and lime stone. Some are bordering a small lake, while others are close to a sea side cliff.

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The surface area is around 15 hectares. The yields are quite low, varying between 8 and 30hl per ha.

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The plots are surrounded by varied vegetation: tamarind, pines, reeds, olive and almond trees, and low scrub vegetation.

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We work 9 grape varieties: 4 White (Macabeu, Grenache gris, Carignan Blanc, Muscat petits grains) and 5 Red (Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah and Cinsault).

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The Wine Maker

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My name is Marc Castan, I was born in Narbonne and spent my childhood in the Corbières Maritimes area where I developed a passion for both the sea and the land.

 

After graduating from high school, I decided to study winemaking and to recover the vineyards of my grandfather.

 

After a few years in a wine coop and some dreams later, I embarked on the most beautiful of adventures; It is in this way that in 2009, I vinified my first vintage.

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Vineyard Practices

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An organic approach is obvious to me so both the vineyard and cellar are worked with minimum input, and with a great respect for life and nature.

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In the vineyards, we use biodynamic practices without certification.

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Step by step we replace the tractor with horses.

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Harvest usually starts as early as mid-August to preserve natural acidity. We harvest everything by hand, only in the morning, in small boxes.

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In the winery, vinification happens naturally. Nothing is used to tamper with the juice during fermentation.

 

In the spirit of our work in the vineyard, we don't use cultured yeast, we don’t de-acidify and we don't fine our wines.

 

We practise light punchings of the cap and pumping-over for the full-bodied wines.

Almost every wine will be kept during the winter in old barrels.  We don't add sulfite exept for some cuvee when it is necessar only a tiny amount at bottling.