A unique terroir : Pic Saint-Loup
Our domain is located in the heart of Pic Saint-Loup, iconic mountain at the north of Languedoc. This majestic terroir, which produces fine and elegant wines, has original and unique characteristics. Although Pic Saint-Loup is located at 20 kilometers from the Mediterranean sea, this wine region has an average altitude of 150 meters, on the first foothills of the Cévennes.
A specific climate
Here, the Mediterranean climate is marked by continental influences from the Cévennes. We observe a higher rainfall than the rest of the region Languedoc, which provides our vineyards with great water reserves. During the period of veraison, there are also wide temperature variations, with fresh nights and hotter days, which allows an optimal ripening of the grapes.Then, even if the relief protects us from strong winds, the moderate blow of the Mistral and the Tramontane dry the vines and the grapes, which enables to avoid deseases due to moisture.
An exceptionnal range of soils
The Pic Saint-Loup wine region, it is also a wide range of soils : limestone scree, clay-limestone stoil, marly-limestone soils… limestones from different geological ages. Theses soils are particularly filtering and deep, which provide the vineyards with regular water supply. They also contribute to give to the wine a singular expression.
Last, Pic Saint-Loup is composed of vineyards in clearing. The plots are surrounded by wild garrigue, a Mediterrranean forest which grows on limestone soil and composed for example of kermes oaks, Salzmann pine and heather.
Our major terroirs
Lascaux, Tourtoutelle, Les Costes, Le Patus : all of these are terroirs with different vine characteristics that sublimate our wines, each in their own way.
The terroir of Lascaux
In front of the domain, a place called "Las Caux", on which is located a eponymous hill, is home to part of our vineyard. In Occitan, "las" means "the", and "caux" the limestone rock. Lascaux, a land which was in the past covered with holm oaks, then served as fodder and where cereals were also sown to feed the farm, barley and cultivated vines, testifies to the agricultural history who shaped our landscape. A place from which our domain takes its name where the soil is composed of limestone and red clay with an important stoniness : these demanding characteristics for the vine allow it to fully express.
The terroirs of "Les Costes" and "Le Patus"
The terroirs of Les Costes and Le Patus are located close to Vacquières, on soils from the Lower Cretaceous age. They are made of marls (clay mixed with calcium carbonate) and limestones of marin origin, banking to the West. Covered of garrigue with green oaks and Aleppo pines, the most massive limestones form slopes, where vineyards have been planted.
The terroir of Tourtourel
The terroir of Tourtourel is located at the Nord of the vines that benefit from the particular qualities of the « gravette » of Corconne : it is an accumulation of Jurassic-era limestone shards created from ice forming in the small crevices of the limestone rock, bursting it into small pieces of gravel, which was then spread over vast swathes of land by floods during the Quaternary period.
Our tasting cellar in Vacquières
We are precisely located in the heart of Vacquières, a village surrounded by garrigue.
Our tasting cellar is a former priory from the 12th century. It once depended of the Abbey of Vignogoul, in Pignan. It is a unique place, as a witness of the time that passes by.
First church registers mentionned the presence of the Cavalier family in 1554. It is all around that priory that the history of the family and of the domain has been developed.
