The “complantation”, an ancestral method, a preserved method in Roussillon.

One of the specificities of the Banyuls cru and shared in Roussillon, is the planting of several grape varieties on the same plot.
This ancient practice dates back to a time when grape varieties were not as important as they are today and it was very natural for a winegrower in past centuries to replace the dead strains of a vine with plants of a different variety than the one planted on the said parcel.
Rarely was a plot of land completely uprooted and what is now called “massale selection” of vines that were no longer old because they were composed of very old and more recent strains planted to replace the “missing” ones.

We have maintained this method of cultivation at Domaine Augustin & La Préceptorie.
This means that during the harvest, we have to make several passes to harvest, for example, first, the Grenaches gris to make white Collioures or white Côtes du Roussillon at the end of August, then ten days later, on the same plot, black Grenaches to make red Collioure or red Côtes du Roussillon.
This “segmentation” of the harvest corresponds to a distribution of production and obliges us to the distribution of marketing.
Unlike other estates, in other vintages, we did not choose our vineyard, our grape varieties; we wanted to preserve an old vineyard that only produced traditional Banyuls or Maury twenty years ago by making it “speak” differently today through the exposure and altitude of these parcels vinified in different ways.
We did not choose to plant this or that grape variety after a market study to make a type of wine adapted to this market.
Therefore, our distributor customers can support us in our approach only on the condition that they like the wines and that they share the same cultural requirements in order to maintain this anachronistic vineyard as it is, by marketing and consuming the wines, all the wines produced, whether they are white, red or mutated.
For this reason, we cannot meet the demand of those who would be content to buy only white wines from us at the expense of everything else: the volumes of white wines made available to our customers can only be proportional to those withdrawn in red.

The Parcels

Domaine Augustin works 8 hectares spread over 10 parcels.They constitute several terroirs that are very different in terms of their soils, subsoils, altitudes, exposures and of course the age of the vines. Nevertheless, two main types of terroirs can be identified among these parcels:

The recent parcels, planted by Marc Parcé, Augustin’s father, in the 80s, at altitude, on cooler, deeper land, exposed to the East and facing the sea.
The second type of plot corresponds to the old vineyard, the vines have no age and are complanted. There are mainly black and grey Grenaches, but also whites, Carignans, Mourvèdres, Cinsaults and some Syrahs.This is massale selection. The soils are generally shallower, less rich and the maturities are earlier.These plots are at lower altitudes and take advantage of the relief to shelter from the wind.

The Work

There are a few elements that condition the work on the Domaine Augustin.

The vineyard is sloping, not small hillsides but slopes, as in Côte-Rôtie.

Tillage is therefore difficult and fall rainfall events require us to work perpendicular to the slope, so as to slow the water flow, to limit erosion.

Horses or mules are nowadays irreplaceable for those who want to preserve our dry-stone walls and agulles.

I have never seen a tractor manage to climb over a low wall or jump an agulle before.

Another decisive factor in the vineyard is the lack of water associated with poor soils.
This water deficit leads to low yields which vary according to the parcels and the vintage (Grenache, which constitutes 90% of the vines, is very coulard) between 15 and 35hl/ha.
The grafting in place with wood from our oldest plots allows us to have a selection of plant material particularly adapted to our constraints.
The low vigour of the strains, combined with the windy climate, allows us to use only natural products to treat the vines.

Parcels

The Domaine de la Préceptorie is located in Saint Paul de Fenouillet, at the bottom of the Algy valley.
Our 29 hectares of vines on 44 plots are spread all along the valley, between Estagel and Saint Paul de Fenouillet and oscillate between 100 and 200 metres above sea level.
They constitute several terroirs that are very different in terms of their soils, subsoils, altitudes, exposures and of course the age of the vines.

The vineyard is located on parcels of black schist and schistose-marl in the second layer.
The flaky structure of shale gives the roots the opportunity to sink deep into the ground to find moisture.
The black colour allows heat to be absorbed during the day and released once night falls, thus allowing the grapes to reach a very high sugar content.
There are also clay-limestone soils which are balanced soils that combine clay and its freshness with the filtering properties of limestone stones, these wines are fine, fruity and round without being heavy.
It mainly contains Grenache noir, Syrah and Carignan for the reds and Macabeu as well as Grenache gris et blancs for the whites.

The Work

The Préceptorie vineyard is on small hillsides which, unlike the plots of the Augustin estate, are mechanizable, so tillage is less difficult.

Vinification

(includes both domains)

Harvesting is obviously manual, in boxes.

The work in the cellar is classic, with gentle pressing and punching down, maturing in vats or barrels according to needs and that’s all.

We believe that if the work in the vineyard has been well done then it is enough to simply accompany the grapes in the cellar.

Finally, after having mentioned the soil, the climate, the plant material and our practices which constitute the four elements of the terroir, we simply want to say that as far as our practices are concerned, which we are not used to talking about and which cannot be seen, we take the time to work well all year round.