To never raise your head would be to condemn yourself to living in the shadow of your dreams. The Domaine de l'Agramante is the dream of making a living from the noble profession of winegrower.

Domaine de l'Agramante is a small 5 ha estate that I created in 2018, in the town of Sabran in the southern Côtes du Rhône. The vines are almost all on sandy-loamy terraces facing South/South-East. After 15 years of working in chemical engineering (between coffee and computer), I sought a different approach to work and life, seeking meaning in both; use your hands and your brain to try to understand the interactions between vines (wonderful plants) and terroir. The goal is to take care of the plant, in a natural way, so that it gives me a healthy fruit to transform into wine. To make a wine, being stingy with sulphites, so that it gives the expression of the geology, the climate and my work in the vineyard.

The work in the vineyard for me starts at pruning, this is where the reflection begins in order to determine the quantity of fruit bearers, according to the vigor of the porcini mushroom and taking into account the aeration of the same in the green season. I practice gentle pruning on my vines (mostly in cups), to limit scarring and respect sap flow. This takes more time but, at the goal of 6 years I start to see pretty spiraled bannes. When pruning I take the oaths out of the plot (I recycle them for heating/grilling or I burn them on site) in order to limit the effort of decomposition which requires the pumping of nitrogen from the earth, nitrogen which, in addition, is indirectly amended by green manures (all rows) of cereals and legumes. In 6 years (except in 2022) I have been able to see the effect of this work on the nitrogen content of the musts.

No competition, in terms of grass cover, for my vines which are all on sandy-loamy soil. Mechanical work (on the surface) + finishing with a pickaxe around the porcini mushrooms. The goal is to have no competition from budburst (this also helps heat the soil in April) and flowering.

The vine is entirely disbudded/de-stalked by hand, but for 3 years I have no longer leaf-leafed (protection against the sun and small hail).

Manual harvest and in 40 lt crates. The instruction is to “only take the bunches that you would eat”. It must be said that since my installation I have had very little sorting to do. Maturity is always a headache. Given the nature of my floors, personally I aim for finesse/elegance instead of power...in antithesis with my size.

The grapes are vatted in my private cellar 10 km from the vines the same day (no fridge = savings). I do not have a vertical cellar but the grapes are vatted by gravity using 6hl boxes lifted above the vats and unloaded with a rake.

The vinifications are simple and start with the rosé/petnat which also has the function of base of vats to launch the other vats. Depending on the wines, the plots, and the grape varieties, I determine the maceration time.

I learned that to limit the use of sulphites you need a clean and sugar-free cellar. For this reason, the logistics of the harvest and winemaking take the logic of working the grapes (stemming and crushing) over the shortest possible time window in order to have sugar out of the vat not long before cleaning...cleaning which ends through the gutters every day!

Sulphiting is limited after malos (racking a wine which is almost no longer protected could oxidize it): 0.5gr/hl; at blending: 0.5 gr/hl (we move wines at low temperatures) and at bottling: 1gr/hl. After all this is not systematic, but it gives a general idea of the concept.

The Domaine de l'Agramante aims, in the long term, to reclaim another two hectares which, with the 0.5 ha plantations two years ago, will supplement the land with around 0.80ha of white wine. I am a small farm and I intend to remain so (maximum size of 6ha). At the same time, in these 6 more or less difficult years, I understood the logic and the need to move away from monoculture. So lots of projects in mind to open up the field to other experiences.