The 2023 vintage proved to be a story of contrasts, alternating between scarcity and the promise of a regeneration, revealing the extent of challenges awaiting agriculture as a whole. It started with the second consecutive year of persistent winter drought, casting a worrisome shadow on our harvest’s prospects. The first four months witnessed a significant […]
Regenerative Agriculture Here at Château de Nages and Domaine Gassier in Costières de Nîmes, we have adopted a new way of farming called regenerative agriculture. It helps fight climate change by placing ecosystem resilience at the heart of viticulture. Organic farming was only the first step Transitioning to organic farming in 2007 marked an important […]
In this current context of drought, the debate has come front and center in many parts of our planet. Opinions, often formulated with absolute certainties, are often linked to past weather patterns and whether or not there is enough access to fresh water for irrigation. In our Mediterranean climate, the grape vine is one of […]
Year 1: The choice of our first set of seedings The return of warmer weather heralds the moment to start sowing our cover crops on land destined to eventually be planted with a new vineyard or orchard. In the life of a farm, it’s important to let land rest between two crops (in our […]
As we farmers in France say, “Trees never reach the heavens”, and after several incredibly favorable vintages that were easy to vinify, the golden series came to a brutal end. 2021 was a challenge from start to finish. If we came out the other side doing so well, it’s thanks to the tremendous investment and […]
The philosophy behind regenerative farming focuses on conservation and improvement of our farming environments. It emphasizes restoring local biodiversity but above all improving the quantity and quality of topsoil. One of the most effective practices is the use of cover crops. Used correctly they mitigate soil erosion while improving soil fertility, quality, water retention, weeds, […]
We’ll all be happy to turn the page “2020” at midnight on December 31st, in spite of the many uncertainties that will remain. While everyone has been rightfully focused on the global social and economic disruption of the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 wine harvest has been enormously troubling for many of our colleagues. It’s been […]
Each winter some 200 ewes and lambs call our organic vineyards home, where they feast upon wild vegetation. The troop has the run of a one-hectare block of vines for about two days, before the shepherd moves them to a new block. When the vegetation gets out of hand, we only have a few options: […]
We always like to compare vintages but given the highly unusual weather conditions of 2019 it is hard to find a match Cold air episode on April 5th, burning some new shoots in the low lying zones of some vineyards Cool and overcast beginning of May generating extensive shattering on Grenache A drought so severe […]
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