MOTHER NATURE
The Domaine des Florets draws its character from its exceptional terroir located on the heights of Gigondas, at the top of the Dentelles de Montmirail, one of the most beautiful classified sites in France.
In this biodiversity setting, the vines benefit from a very special situation, which makes it possible to avoid using water resources for irrigation and to limit the impact of climate change.
AOC Gigondas
The vines flourish on hillsides shaped by the hand of man, on an extraordinary, natural and protected site. The cultivation of vines at the foot of the famous Dentelles de Montmirail, dates back to Antiquity. The gray limestone soils constitute unique terroirs which allowed Gigondas to become the first Cru of the Côtes du Rhône Villages in 1971.
The maximum authorized yields in the Gigondas appellation are very low (36 hectoliters per hectare). Grenache Noir thrives wonderfully on this very harsh but magnificent terroir.
On 1200 hectares of vines, the AOC Gigondas is a rich landscape mosaic made up of forest, rocky, agricultural and aquatic environments in which live protected and remarkable animal and plant species such as the Egyptian vulture and the Ophrys scolopax.
The terroir
Gigondas
The plots of the Domaine extend over 4 hectares of steep terrain, at the top of the Dentelles Sarrasines in this grandiose landscape, protected by high limestone rocks artistically carved by erosion. Resulting from the scree of the Dentelles, the clay-limestone soils made up of blue marls form unique terroirs where old Grenache vines over 50 years old flourish, which give birth each year to wines of character.
The Dentelles de Montmirail massif is mainly composed of geological formations from the secondary era (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous), between -200 and -60 million years. Its limestone rock bars are the result of tectonic movements (Nîmes fault) which have created a geological phenomenon, known as diapir, compared to real cold volcanism.
In this haven of biodiversity, my vines flourish at over 450 meters above sea level. They benefit both from the advantages of the Provençal sun and a Northeast exposure, which provides the necessary coolness during dry periods, avoids the excessive heat of summer, and imparts the wines with a typical finesse and freshness.
Sablet
Sablet's vineyard with its gentle slopes thrives on sandy soils, decalcified red clay and gravels of varying sizes. On the east facade stand the Dentelles de Montmirail.
Sablet owes its name to sandy soils, hills of safre, yellow sand with irregular sandstone formation. Near the Dentelles, this sand is made from a detrital substrate constituting the foothills of the massif and from Quaternary alluvium (silt and rolled pebbles) carried by the Ouvèze river.
The Sablet vineyard extends over the entire commune with its 323 ha and adjoins that of Gigondas,
The estate's plot extends over two hectares on the Sablet hillsides in Côtes du Rhône Village. The soils are sandy clay-loam with a western exposure. They have a nice load of silicon and magnesium as well as blue marl.
Violès and
Camaret-sur-Aygues
This fairly uniform terroir corresponds to the vast alluvial terrace formed by the Aygues and the Ouvèze rivers at the time of the Riss 2 to 300,000 years ago, topped with limestone gravels dating from the Quaternary Era. These gravels rest either on blue Pliocene clay or on sandstone safre, ensuring rising humidity which relatively preserves the growth of the vines during the summer drought.
We are in the plain where the nose of the wines recalls the surrounding scrubland: thyme, laurel and undergrowth.
The estate extends over two communes of Violes and Camaret sur Aygues near Plan de Dieu in Côtes du Rhône. The plot of the 2.5 hectare vineyard is based on sandy clay-loam soils with small crushed stones.
At a depth of one meter different terroirs appear depending on the location in the plot: fine limestone sand, sandy yellow limestone loam, puddingstone (old river bed). A differentiated harvest is carried out to obtain these different expressions.
