The soil is a living medium
The guiding principle we have adopted for our vineyards is to preserve the soil’s inner life by protecting it from outside aggressions such as herbicides, pesticides, N/P/K fertilizers and erosion. This means that worms and all other creatures living in the soil can live in harmony with the vines. The limiting element is the organic matter. We provide it by mulching our vineyards with the results of our regular scything of the plants grown between the lines. We also encourage a form of very useful bacteria that live in the nodules of leguminous plants. These bacteria transform nitrogen from the air into nitrates for the vines. For this purpose we have chosen bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), sown directly under the rows and mow occasionally. It stops weeds from growing among the vines through allelopathic mechanisms (see photo).
In a healthy soil, all plants and creatures work with the vintner.
Further information
Grapevines draw their nourishment from the soil which is not simply an inorganic structure: it is an extremely complex and lively medium.
Healthy soils contain up to 0.3 kg/m2 of worms in a 30cm deep sample, in addition to countless organisms both macro- and microscopic that live together in perfect harmony. Admittedly they eat each other, but this is precisely what results in a healthy equilibrium between the various species. These organisms are essential to the vines because they provide nutrients that no plant can produce on its own (elicitors and organic molecules) or extract easily from the soil (minerals, for instance). Likewise, certain organisms cannot live without certain plants, both partners being indispensable to one another’s healthy development (symbiosis). .
Another example is the role of earthworms: in a healthy soil, earthworms alone can provide up to 300 kg of nitrogen per hectare, which is more than enough for most crops, including vines. Worms work their way through the soil, eating it and expelling it in the form of droppings extremely rich in natural fertilizers. They churn up and aerate the earth, bringing up nutrients deeply embedded in the lower levels of the soil which in turn feed micro-organisms living close to the plants’ roots. In a 100 square metre area, worms swallow and excrete 3 tonnes of soil a year: with “friends” like these, who needs a plough? (see website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm
Soil that is submitted to intensive farming methods loses most of its inhabitants to fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. The number of earthworms, for instance, can be as much as a hundred times lower than in healthy soils.
Obviously plants can live off an artificial diet provided by N/P/K fertilizers (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and a few trace elements), as seen in the hydroponic cultivation methods used in greenhouses, for instance. However, such plants are fragile and less disease-resistant, which means they have to be treated with chemicals; in addition their flavour and aromas are often insignificant. Wine-growers face the same problems. Vines are normally planted in well-exposed but poor soils and these are usually fed with large amounts of N/P/K fertilizers to make the plants more productive. The very notion of “terroir”, so dear to the French-speaking wine-grower, is meaningless in such vineyards since the soil is laced with “foreign” ingredients that have nothing to do with the local soil’s own characteristics.
The estate’s soil
The colour, structure and aromatic composition of each wine is deeply influenced by the nature of the soil and sub-soil the vines grow in. The same variety will produce very different wines according to the soil, or “terroir”. The Vens-le-Haut vines grow on a thin layer of topsoil lying on a fine layer of gravely clay which lies on a thin layer of sandy soil covering the sandstone or molasse bedrock. This structure enables the vines to benefit from the low moisture of the sandstone. It is a far throw from the usual limey clay soils common to most areas of the country. Our soil is poor, but this is precisely what gives our wines their unique characteristics. It is sandy and rich in molasse. The sediments that form the molasse and the sand originated in the warm sea that covered a large part of the Rhône area some 135 million years ago. Interesting fossils of shark’s teeth, beaks, ammonites, ferns turn up regularly (see photos). In some areas, near Bellegarde and on the right-hand banks of the Rhône, ancient coral-reefs – remnants of which are still discernible in some places – have broken down leaving limestone (lime carbonate). The Seyssel region is not a uniform “terroir”, since a number of soil structures are present within the same area. The wines should therefore vary from one vineyard to the next. Sadly, this is not the case because the massive use of fertilizers has ironed out the differences.
Aspect
Situated at an altitude of some 360 m at the foot of the Mont des Princes, our vineyards are planted on sunny slopes. They face south-west above the Rhône valley, at the southernmost and lowest tip of the Haute-Savoie. The rocky crags of the Mont des Princes reflect the heat of the sun they absorb and create a micro-climate which favours a very unusual fauna and flora, more often seen in Mediterranean regions, such as almond trees and cicadas.
The guiding principle we have adopted for our vineyards is to preserve the soil’s inner life by protecting it from outside aggressions such as herbicides, pesticides, N/P/K fertilizers and erosion. This means that worms and all other creatures living in the soil can live in harmony with the vines. The limiting element is the organic matter. We provide it by mulching our vineyards with the results of our regular scything of the plants grown between the lines. We also encourage a form of very useful bacteria that live in the nodules of leguminous plants. These bacteria transform nitrogen from the air into nitrates for the vines. For this purpose we have chosen bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), sown directly under the rows and mow occasionally. It stops weeds from growing among the vines through allelopathic mechanisms (see photo).
In a healthy soil, all plants and creatures work with the vintner.
Further information
Grapevines draw their nourishment from the soil which is not simply an inorganic structure: it is an extremely complex and lively medium.
Healthy soils contain up to 0.3 kg/m2 of worms in a 30cm deep sample, in addition to countless organisms both macro- and microscopic that live together in perfect harmony. Admittedly they eat each other, but this is precisely what results in a healthy equilibrium between the various species. These organisms are essential to the vines because they provide nutrients that no plant can produce on its own (elicitors and organic molecules) or extract easily from the soil (minerals, for instance). Likewise, certain organisms cannot live without certain plants, both partners being indispensable to one another’s healthy development (symbiosis). .
Another example is the role of earthworms: in a healthy soil, earthworms alone can provide up to 300 kg of nitrogen per hectare, which is more than enough for most crops, including vines. Worms work their way through the soil, eating it and expelling it in the form of droppings extremely rich in natural fertilizers. They churn up and aerate the earth, bringing up nutrients deeply embedded in the lower levels of the soil which in turn feed micro-organisms living close to the plants’ roots. In a 100 square metre area, worms swallow and excrete 3 tonnes of soil a year: with “friends” like these, who needs a plough? (see website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm
Soil that is submitted to intensive farming methods loses most of its inhabitants to fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. The number of earthworms, for instance, can be as much as a hundred times lower than in healthy soils.
Obviously plants can live off an artificial diet provided by N/P/K fertilizers (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and a few trace elements), as seen in the hydroponic cultivation methods used in greenhouses, for instance. However, such plants are fragile and less disease-resistant, which means they have to be treated with chemicals; in addition their flavour and aromas are often insignificant. Wine-growers face the same problems. Vines are normally planted in well-exposed but poor soils and these are usually fed with large amounts of N/P/K fertilizers to make the plants more productive. The very notion of “terroir”, so dear to the French-speaking wine-grower, is meaningless in such vineyards since the soil is laced with “foreign” ingredients that have nothing to do with the local soil’s own characteristics.
The estate’s soil
The colour, structure and aromatic composition of each wine is deeply influenced by the nature of the soil and sub-soil the vines grow in. The same variety will produce very different wines according to the soil, or “terroir”. The Vens-le-Haut vines grow on a thin layer of topsoil lying on a fine layer of gravely clay which lies on a thin layer of sandy soil covering the sandstone or molasse bedrock. This structure enables the vines to benefit from the low moisture of the sandstone. It is a far throw from the usual limey clay soils common to most areas of the country. Our soil is poor, but this is precisely what gives our wines their unique characteristics. It is sandy and rich in molasse. The sediments that form the molasse and the sand originated in the warm sea that covered a large part of the Rhône area some 135 million years ago. Interesting fossils of shark’s teeth, beaks, ammonites, ferns turn up regularly (see photos). In some areas, near Bellegarde and on the right-hand banks of the Rhône, ancient coral-reefs – remnants of which are still discernible in some places – have broken down leaving limestone (lime carbonate). The Seyssel region is not a uniform “terroir”, since a number of soil structures are present within the same area. The wines should therefore vary from one vineyard to the next. Sadly, this is not the case because the massive use of fertilizers has ironed out the differences.
Aspect
Situated at an altitude of some 360 m at the foot of the Mont des Princes, our vineyards are planted on sunny slopes. They face south-west above the Rhône valley, at the southernmost and lowest tip of the Haute-Savoie. The rocky crags of the Mont des Princes reflect the heat of the sun they absorb and create a micro-climate which favours a very unusual fauna and flora, more often seen in Mediterranean regions, such as almond trees and cicadas.
