vineyards

Viticulture on a unique terroir

The vineyards are located on the Força Réal massif (altitude 505 m), 15 km northwest of Perpignan.

The terroir is made up of slate schist, formed over 450 million years ago during the Paleozoic era These are metamorphic rocks: originally clay-rich sediments that were subjected to intense pressure and temperature variations, transforming into thin, plate-like layers

The soil allows vine roots to grow deep in search of what they need: water and minerals. It is both permeable and dry.

Our hillside on the slopes of Força Réal benefits from the gentle southeast sun — less scorching in summer than the setting sun — the northwesterly Tramontane wind, and the coolness brought by altitude.

Few vineyard terroirs in the world require as little treatment as the Força Réal terroir.

With over 50 years of experience on our Força Réal terroir, since the first plantings by founder René-Jean Camo, we have developed a vineyard cultivation approach uniquely adapted to this land.

A few principles :

The vine needs very little water and only produces great wines when it is made to struggle a little. We refuse to irrigate our vineyards, in order to craft wines that truly reflect our terroirs as they are today

Hand harvesting: machine harvesting does not align with our philosophy of grape picking and would not allow us to carry out our parcel-based vinifications

We limit but do not entirely renounce mechanical soil work — when conditions allow it. Each year, we carry out a tillage after harvest In this way, we push back the encroaching garrigue from the vineyard and break up the soil to better receive the autumn rains

* Row work is done with a hoe or an inter-row cultivator when conditions allow

* Fungicide treatments are limited to a maximum of two applications per year

* We use no insecticide treatments, even those permitted in organic farming

* We adapt our practices in the vineyard and in the cellar to the specific conditions of our location — the northwesterly Tramontane wind, altitude, southeast-facing slopes, and schist terroir — rather than to private specifications or labels

* We use manure from sheepfolds in the Upper Aude Valley, but no fertilizers or soil amendments from the agro-industry

* We adapt our interventions to the seasons, variations in temperature and humidity, and, when possible, to lunar cycles (bottling, pruning, racking, grape harvesting).”

* For the past 50 years, we have been planting trees around all our vineyards — cork oaks, olive trees, cedars, and pines. As a result, every vineyard is now surrounded by forest

* Installation of beehives and creation of ponds

To meet our customers’ expectations, we have been certified by Veritas France since 2008 — for France under the “Vin biologique” label, and for the United States under the NOP (“wines made with organic grapes”) certification

… Land of the First Humans

This schist hillside offers a breathtaking panorama over the entire Roussillon plain and the sea. Human beings lived in this environment 550,000 years ago. They were reindeer hunters, as evidenced by the human remains discovered at the “Caune de l’Arago,” near the present-day village of Tautavel.
The Tautavel Man sourced his stones within a 30-kilometer radius, notably in the Têt Valley. He was a Homo heidelbergensis, a relative of the Neanderthal. After encountering Homo sapiens, who came from Africa, he passed on some of his genes to us.

That is why, during vineyard development work, we regularly find flint tools and stone fragments once used by these distant ancestors

The Força Réal hill is visible from all across the region. Its pyramidal shape has served as a maritime landmark since antiquity, guiding fishermen at sea. Making wine on land once walked by the first humans — and on a hill that has long been a fixed point for sailors in the storm — gives a unique meaning, and a special flavour, to the work of a vigneron

Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,
e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem;
non quia vexari quemquamst jucunda voluptas,
sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suavest (Lucrèce, De Narura Rerum)