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A bold Terroir

Moving down the shale slopes and the ravine-hewn hills of the Aspres, the Reart and the Tech have stripped from the banks the materials that today make up the alluvial plain on which the domain sits. It affords it unity and also its originality. It was during the quaternary period . The river pushed large rocks down the short journey from the heights of the Canigou, fragments of quartz and above all shalle, combined with a few splashes of white and pink marble. Once deposited on this vast horizontal plain, this alluvial film of some two metres was transformed through time, vegetation and wind. Those areas most resistant to erosion, made up of the largest stones, were subtly reworked and today constitute fine outcrops of gravely soils to the south-east of the domain. They are characterised by typical red Mediterranean soil, poor and acidic, which vines love. Their roots seek out minerals and humidity in the interstices of the soil. If water is scarce, it is through the depths of the sub-soil, in the deeper strata that the plant will quench its thirst. Here is the sign of a great “terroir”, that recalls Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

At a short distance towards the north-east its all change. The plain is impoverished by gravely soils, where shale and quartz make a poor showing in a sea of sand and grey silt. Even though the soil is poor, the vines grow more readily, perhaps suffering less. A fine nuance that has not excaped Etienne’s attention, nor his father before him. Here the vine produces a more immediate wine.