Installation in 2013 on 8 hectares, including 7 in cooperative and 1 in particular vinification, in Oppède, on the northern slope of the Petit Luberon. The soils are sandy on the slopes, and deeper on the banks of the Calavon (clay-limestone marl, and silty saffron). All surfaces are carried out in organic farming.
Year after year I consolidate my installation by “freeing” plots from the cooperative, and gradually increasing my volumes in private cellars. I have, for the 2018 vintage, 5 hectares in particular vinification and 3 hectares still in the cooperative. This proportion allows me to take special care of the vines for my particular vinification, in particular to cultivate according to the lunar calendar (late pruning in the waning moon, tillage in the root day, bottling during low tidal coefficients. .).
Short pruning with two eyes, heavy disbudding to limit yields and leaf stripping to reduce treatments. Some operations (putting on and taking off the shoes, among others) are carried out using animal traction, in order to limit soil compaction. The soil is worked if necessary, in order to guarantee an assimilable nitrogen content necessary for future fermentations. The use of the tractor is limited to the maximum.
The harvest is manual, in small boxes, sorting is carried out on the plot if necessary, because we are lucky to have a particularly healthy climate on this northern slope of the Petit Luberon.
The vinifications are "natural": grape yeasts (indigenous) only, no wine input is provided, and all the wines have been without added sulphites for four vintages. My goal is the search for flexibility, freshness and pleasure. Most of the work for me is in the vineyard, once it is done correctly, we can trust our raw material and accompany it rather than constrain it ... Temperature control, aeration of the juices, racking of the lees, pumping over, punching down, and other mechanical interventions are designed according to the fermentation kinetics and the desired result. I let myself be guided by my senses and my intuitions, with humility, wishing to keep a part of "magic". Balance is a quest, patience is the way.