Château Boucarut
With the exception of our vineyards in Tavel, Boucarut's vineyards are all located around the estate. They are medium to small plots, situated in relation to the built-up areas: on a plateau to the north-west, on a hillside to the south-west and on a plain to the east.
Our estate is therefore unique in that it constitutes a veritable sanctuary.
The landscape is marked by numerous hedges and copses, which naturally give the estate an agro-ecological configuration. These hedges and copses make mechanized work less easy and require specific maintenance, but they create a varied landscape and are highly favorable to biodiversity, notably birds (sometimes rare or spectacular, such as the European roller, the hoopoe, the little owls, or the green woodpecker) and reptiles (Montpellier's garter snake and the ocellated lizard in particular).
Beyond this visible biodiversity, we seek to encourage the invisible biodiversity of the soil. To this end, and to go further than organic farming standards, we maintain a partial plant cover in the vineyards, including in spring and summer, which is most often shunned in Mediterranean viticulture because of the competition between vines and other plants. On the surface, however, such cover protects the soil from the sun's rays in summer. It provides shelter for auxiliary fauna and microfauna, and should limit the proliferation of so-called pests (better than insecticides, which indiscriminately destroy and disrupt the balance). By sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil in organic form, the natural cycle of plant cover also encourages underground life, structures the soil and preserves water resources.
To encourage soil life, we also reduce the amount of copper we use, compared with the legal organic standard (the accumulation of copper is detrimental to soil fungi). We also try to limit ploughing and, more generally, the use of tractors.
Beyond the beneficial effects of these practices on the natural balance of our soils, we believe that the depth of a wine begins with the complexity of the environment in which the vines grow. In other words, there is no such thing as a terroir wine without living soil!
To date, all our vines, with the exception of those in Tavel, have been planted in cordons de royat, a pruning system designed to facilitate mechanical work. For our new plantings, we're returning to the traditional southern style of gobelet pruning, which is more respectful of the plant's needs.
Similarly, we prefer to use plants from massal selections rather than clones. We are also experimenting with complantation to promote the constant expression of terroir (dilution of varietal expression and vintage effects) and limit the creation of outbreaks of susceptibility to fungal diseases.
Last but not least, we advocate for lower planting densities as a means of keeping soils covered without compromising vine development.
Ultimately, our practices have a dual but inseparable aim: to offer wines of the highest quality and to strive for a natural balance by reasoning each cultivation practice in this direction. This philosophy implies lower yields and higher production costs. But we believe it's the only way to make good wines, with unique characters, from an environment where nature is constantly respected, admired and cherished.