Château l'Escarderie - Mélanie et Thomas Schmid-Haguenin
OUR HISTORY
We acquired the property of Château de l'Escarderie in 2015 for its location on a slight slope, not far from the Dordogne. Surrounded by groves of trees and in one piece, it is ideal for controlled natural production.
The cellar is also exceptional; it dates from the middle of the 19th century and allows gravity-fed grape harvesting and natural temperature regulation. Full of enthusiasm and determined to promote this vine, we settled down as a family.
A PRESERVED NATURE
We work according to the Organic Agriculture label and use our own horses, Saphir and Gitane, for certain work. We have planted 300m of hedges and rows of trees to create as many biodiversity refuges. Located in the heart of the Natura 2000 zone, we are surrounded by nature and in particular colonies of bats. We have kept the openings in the woodwork of our cellar doors and windows, to allow birds and bats to shelter and nest in the cellar.
The treatments carried out do not use synthetic molecules, and we resort to sexual confusion against the moths of the grape worm, so as not to spread insecticide. Lovers of quality work, we harvest by hand for all the cuvées produced at the estate.
By buying and tasting our wines, you support an artisanal vineyard whose objective is to produce a wine that respects nature and people.
NATIVE AMPHORAS AND YEASTS
We have been working for several years with terracotta and sandstone aging and vinification containers; From this come our wine Château L'Escarderie and the Amphora cuvée, vinified and aged 100% in amphorae for the latter. We want to vinify without adding commercial yeasts and with a minimum of sulphites. The average levels are below the 30 mg/l mark, which is to say that we are not abusing it!
We are convinced that nature reveals the character of wine!
THE TEAM
We operate as a family exclusively, made up of:
Melanie and Thomas >
Both have undergone professional retraining to devote themselves full-time to Château l'Escarderie and horses. Thomas deals more specifically with the vines and the cellar, Mélanie with administration and marketing, but they are often together for important events (fairs, harvests, etc.).
Rose-Marie and Dieter>
Melanie's parents. Without them, this project would not have seen the light of day and they are always there to help if necessary!
Sapphire and Gypsy>
Our Percheron and our Belgian line, of course, mascots and part-time collaborators, since they flow most of the time on sunny days in our green meadows.