Le Picatier - Géraldine & Christophe Pialoux
It is with the energy of our passion that we grow the vine, and our wines are the result of our work: without any artifice, without any inputs or sulphites ... live wines! We are located 16 km west of Roanne (Loire 42) and we have a total of 8 hectares of vineyards located at 400m above sea level on sandy granitic soil, ideal for our grape king Gamay! But we also have 1ha of Chardonnay and 1 ha of Pinot Noir. In the vineyard: We carry out passages of "Horn dung" from February to April and according to the year, we make several passages of silica in July (early veraison) to strengthen the photosynthesis of the plant, which plays an important role for the taste and aroma of grapes. We use local plants such as nettle and comfrey to feed the vines with minerals. We work the soil only under the row and the inter-row is grassed naturally: no plowing but use a "roller faca" to roll the grass to protect the soil from climatic aggressions such as thunderstorms, the heat wave , the gel ... This is to multiply the microbial life of the soil and favor the local fauna and flora. We seek to strengthen the vine with plants and our preparations to fight against diseases and pests on our own. We are certified organic since 2011 by Ecocert. And wine ... As for winemaking, it respects work upstream: our wines are vinified, aged and bottled without any input or additives (such as sugar, industrial yeasts, sulphites, sugar, nitrogen, tartaric acid .... and the list is long ... !!) The climatic vagaries of recent years have made us decide to buy a few grapes that we chose exclusively in organic from our friends winemakers.