Domaine Les Enfants Sauvages Cotes Catalanes Bouche du Soleil
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A simple truth, but one so oftenoverlooked in today s busy world. For agriculture, this truth means that we must farm our land without damaging it; we must create an equilibrium between what we take from the land and what we give to it; we must understand and resprct the rules of the earth and the cosmos. For wine growers, what we give to the land must be this: first of all we must break with the habit of monoculture and ensure that our soil is teaming with life; we must keep ourgrowing areas on a human scale; maintain or create a rich tapestry of plants so that a variety of flora will encourage an equally varied fauna, enrich the soil in a responsible way, caring for its micro- and macro-organism; in short: do all we can to ensure that vines, as a product of the soil, are anintegral part of the natural biological cycle. This will allow our vines to develop the highest level of natural resistance without using any chemical products. Avoiding chemicals means doing much more manual work: hoeing, pruning and treating each vine with our natrual infusions of nettle, camomile, and other herbs. For the greatest concentration of aromes and to preseve the unique character of our terroir, each vine needs individual attention: removing some leaves, side-shoots and excess groth and, with some grapes such as Mourvedre, even reduce the number of grapes. There is nothing new about cultivating vines in this way. We are simply returning to long-standing traditions, some of which have almost been fogotten because chemical pesticides, mechanisation and convenience led winegrowers to neglegt them. Although the importance of these traditions has always been understood in vineyards where quality comes first. We continue with this "new-old" approach in our cellar. We use modern wine-making equipment, but only to monitor and if necessary support the natural chemistry of the wine-making cycle. Wherever possible, we let nature take its course. The result is wine that reflects an essential harmony between humans and nature. Our vineyard is 30 km north of Perpignan, 5 km from the Mediterranean as the crow flies, and 150 m above sea level. All our vineyards are grouped in two plots of land in the midst of natural wild "garrigue" vegetation. This protects us from undesirable influences such as sprayed chemicals and diseas. Instead ourvineyards are surrounded by almond, fig and olive trees and the aromatic herbs so typical of the garrigue - thyme and rosmary. All our vines are head trained in the classic gobelet cultivation style. The vineyards of our terroir are on limestone soil. The total area is 12 hectars, of which 8 are cultivated at present. We pick our grapes by hand and collect them in small baskets to avoid damading the grapes. Our harvest goes straight into our own cellar for immediate processing.