After 15 years in the semiconductor industry (the little chips that make your phones, computers and other gadgets work, or not) and 12 more watching over the vineyards of Domaine Guirardel, here we are off on new adventures.

We have found the ideal place for our wines and us in the Basque Country. They will be able to finish growing in a magnificent semi-buried winery while we apply everything we have learned about sustainable agronomy and winemaking without inputs to other areas of gastronomy. Developing knowledge, sharing it, promoting living art, all in the greatest possible conviviality were our secondary pleasures, it becomes our main objective.

The Vines:

Rooted on the southern slopes of a hillside, between 185 and 225 m above sea level, the vines from which our wines come overlook the Pyrenees. The clay-silt soils are seasoned with gravel and coarse sand. In places, veins of large glacial pebbles drain the soil and store the heat necessary to obtain beautiful, complex and concentrated ripeness. Winter pruning is short to limit yields without practicing green harvesting. Topping is abandoned in favor of braiding. Soil work is reasoned to promote the installation of a self-sufficient ecosystem that does not depend on regular fertilizer inputs. These practices promote the plant-soil balance, the health of the vine and, thus, the quality of the grapes.

The cellar:

It is by taking the time to vinify beautiful grapes that we can extract the natural stabilizers and antioxidants that will make the wine suitable for aging, stable when opened, without the use of additives. It is the indigenous yeasts, present on the grapes at the time of the harvest and in the cellar, that lead the game from start to finish. Barrels, stainless steel vats, stoneware jars, bottles; different containers that, in turn, will house the wines to gently make them grow. After at least 3 years of aging, each vintage is ready to go to the table. Our wines are never as good as when they meet a dish that they like.