When selecting our producers, we think almost as much about how they make their wine and treat their vineyards as we do about how their wine tastes. Virtually all of our domains and producers follow the ‘lutte raisonnée’ practices in France, and similar practices in other countries. Some of our producer’s vineyards are organic and certified, some are organic and not certified for the US, and one is certified organic and biodynamic. The ‘lutte raisonnée’ is the French term for ‘reasonable struggle’. This implies that the methods used are the best practices, treating the vines and grapes with as much care with regard to sustainability, yet using certain practices to maintain the ultimate health of the vineyard and grapes, only when needed, that don’t constitute organic practice. This means that the wine grower uses less chemical treatments than conventional agriculture and treatments that are less aggressive as well, with a focus on maintaining a healthy vineyard. When properly administered, the ‘lutte raisonnée’ is very close to organic gardening. It is a self-imposed stewardship for the vineyard, a choice that the vigneron makes to sustain his land and vineyard for the generations to come, and a way to guarantee the quality of his product.

What many people don’t realize when they buy wine in their favorite store is that many of the vineyard owners and winemakers are first of all farmers. These people are the link to the ancient Greeks who spread grapes all around the Mediterranean basin, the link to the Romans who elevated the practices of cultivation of the vines, the link to the monks of the Middle Ages who honed the skill of cultivation and vinification to such a degree that those practices are basically what we use today. These people are connected to the land to make their living. They know what type of soil they have, they know when the sun comes up and sets, how long it lingers on the vines, they understand how wonderful and how destructive the weather can be. They are aware of which vines mature first and which ones they need to nurture to ripen before the grapes stop developing at the onset of autumn. The wineries in France and Europe are typically under or attached to the winegrower’s home. The home was, more often than not, their parents’ home and their grandparents’ home before that. They will watch the buds form and then transform into flowers and ultimately grapes. As the grapes mature, leaves will be removed to give certain bunches more light and more exposure to the local breezes, grape bunches will be pruned to concentrate the plant’s energy into the remaining grapes to allow them to fully ripen in difficult years. Finally, as all of the elements have had their effect on the grapes and vineyard, the vigneron will decide when to pick the grapes and turn them into wine. After watching over the pressing of the grapes, the juice is fermented into wine. Each step is watched carefully, each step gauged against what was done in prior years, or even how it was done by the father or grandfather who experienced a growing season just like this one. Then they nurture the wine while it ages. The term in French for aging wine implies a little more than aging: the term is ‘élèvage’ as in ‘élève’, the name for a pupil. The winemaker is considered a teacher who instructs/trains the wine into being the student he or she expects it to be. Ultimately, we will open the bottle to celebrate, to have with dinner, to share with friends, or not open until many years later to see how well that student was trained, and we will have a farmer to thank.