Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles
Alain Castex et Ghislaine Magnier
17 avenue de Puig del Mas Banyuls-sur-Mer
No computer
Last year I have a postal Letter from Alain Castex sent with information about his winery and its wines, a brochure of the association of natural wines and a few personal words from which it emerged that he has no computer. An independent wine without a computer? Such a person does not forget you. So we have with him and Ghislaine Magnier identified a meeting when we made a short trip to the region of Perpignan.
Banyuls-sur-Mer
Perpignan, and then the D 914 road to Argelès-sur-Mer, Port-Vendres, and suddenly we see the terraced vineyards covering the entire hillside. This does not look nice, it is scheuβlich, almost macabre. I thought to I feel when a bomb in Banyuls-sur-Mer had fallen, the earth is almost black, and all vegetation is gone. In the Black Sea, only the bare vines. Cut to the real sea which is both strong wind in a wonderful green shows. We drive in Banyuls-sur-Mer. We take a walk and everywhere we see wine cellar. Banyuls-sur-Mer, which is the wine. Later we head to Spain. Up to the limit everywhere the same picture as for the bomb, naked vines in a black sea. Shortly after the English border, the picture changes completely. There are also vineyards on terraces, but the Black Sea has been replaced by grass, bushes and trees. Why? The answer we get in the "Mas Estela". Núria Dalmau, the winemaker at the winery tells us that there has previously also looked like in France. Increasing tourism has meant that many vineyards were abandoned. People would rather have worked as a waitress in a bar or restaurant than with a hoe in the terraces of the vineyards. Excluding farm workers, there are no vineyards. In contrast, the Banyuls wine vineyards have continued their farms, but this situation could change to "the English way." I explain it.
The climate in this region in particular. Above all, it is the wind that surprises again and again. In "The weather in France "by Jacques Kessler and Andrée Cham Braud, the number of days with strong winds is indicated for Perpignan with 127 a year. This is very much in comparison, for example, Strasbourg is only 15 days with strong winds. On the other side Perpignan has 96 very heiβe days a year against 6 such days in Brest. The same applies to the number of hours of sunshine a year, which are for 2603 and for Perpignan Reims 1702nd schlieβlich For the rainfall: in Perpignan 63 cm to 147 cm in Biarritz, so it's a rather dry area. But that's not all. How can we read in the website of the municipality Banyuls there on the hills more than 6000 kilometers terraces with low walls and vines. The hills have a considerable slope, so strong that it with the tractor is not manageable. To combat the weed, which is in competition with the vine and home pest is the simplest solution is the mechanical tillage. As the tractor is not used must make the farm workers, with a hoe, weed for weed. The other solution is the chemical weed control. Since I have not seen a single Kräutchen I am assuming that the wineries have chosen this solution. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the National Institute for the award of wine predicates confirm that impression in their study "quality wine AOC and the documents ". You write about Banyuls ". In this wine-growing region, the weed fight currently chemically re-planting of the vineyard is not without a drastic change in farming methods possible," The combination of climate and chemical weed control, the signs of a "English decide".
A English future
Alain Castex looks skeptical about the future of Banyuls-sur-Mer. The warming of the planet is shown here in a desertification "will win the desert. The floors are no longer able to store the water. Because the soils are fertilized synthetic apparatus of the vineyard immediately if heat and drought stress in water. He can not stay afloat. The ripening stops and they become soft and flabby. "The result is bad, the vines die. Alain speaks of up to 30% losses. And he? He cultivates the soil with a hoe, he fought the weeds with no chemistry.
Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles: Ode to the work
addition, he does not use synthetic fertilizers, only organic fertilizers. In short, he grows organic cultivation, and this method makes the plants resistant to drought. The proof: he has much less loss.
Desertification is not the only blow. Alain Castex expects that some chemicals to one day be banned. "There is still another problem. The groundwater is contaminated by the chemical products and there are too many damages. I do not like white marks they want to solve these problems. When the chemical products are prohibited, there is an economic problem. The wine is vital to Banyuls. "Alain is right. The Institute for the award of wine predicates (INAO) has counted in 2005, 1288, the winemakers are on slippery ground, and only 5 wineries who grow organically. The solution is so simple, 1283 wineries are converting to organic farming and follow the example of Alain. Alain breaks into laughter when I suggest this solution. "Die? No, never, to look at and say we were crazy. This is completely unzeitgemäβ what we're doing, how to edit the vineyard 40 years ago, and chop by hand. And furthermore, the does not pay financially. That is true, of course organic wine is expensive, but consumers are not willing to pay more for it. No give up, 80% of the wine. "And Alain? After the story by Ghislaine about their career out I hear that he will stand up.
The career
"Alain is from Toulouse, he was bad in school and has worked as a mechanic for the railroad. He later started his own business with his own workshop. He always spent his holidays at a relative in the Ariège had a small farm with a small vineyard, a few cows, fruit trees ... There, Alain has a taste for life on land and at some time he then decided that he wants to live in the country. He is then moved as a mechanic of farm machinery in the department of Aude. This was not an easy time. One day he asked a winery from Maisons, a small village, if he would not replace its workers, who went into retirement. He said yes. When he then saw how the work of the whole year in a pile of half-rotten grapes the tanks of the cooperative will disappear, he decided to become self-employed as winemaker. He has made a wine education and settled in 1981 in Jean Dave in the Corbières on a small vineyard, the Domaine Des Armouries. Like many, he has started with conventional cultivation. Step by step he has switched to organic farming. Because he no longer had to throw dirt all over the chemical on the ground. . A progressive evolution "
Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles: Alain Castex
" Then I dive into the story. I am the daughter of a farmer in Picardy, I know myself with wheat, beet and potatoes. I worked 15 years in Paris in the field of sports nutrition. Then I got fed up and wanted to return to the country. I sold everything in Paris and wanted someplace to the south. I stumbled upon an advertisement in the sold something in the Corbières was. I did not even know then where are the Corbières. I went there and had the house inspected, but I did not like it. At the end of the way I am then stuck with the car. I knocked on the door next best, it was that of Alain Castex and asked him to help me. He then pulled me out with his tractor. So we have met. Later I moved to Dave Jean, and I'm on the side with Alain the wine began. "
" We have tried to live in this village, but this has proven difficult out. I was a stranger and he had his whole family here, his friends. So we decided to go away from Dave Jean. Our dream was to Andalusia, where they make a auβergewöhnlichen wine. We went in the direction of Andalusia and made a break in Banyuls-sur-Mer. We have tasted the wine, we have learned to know a wine, we talked for hours and leaving, Alain has asked if there is to buy vineyards here. Perhaps, the winemakers answer, ask me again in three weeks. Well, we asked again and he said, is immediately now or never. We came and we fell in love with the vineyards and immediately bought 4 hectares. That was in November 1994, in December, we began to cut. It was a bit difficult with two wineries. And it was difficult to find a wine cellar. Just in time before our first harvest in 1995, we have found a disused Citroen mechanic who was einigermaβen suited as a wine cellar. "
Now they have 3.7 hectares per with a yield of 10 hectoliters per hectare. For 3 years they also have a vineyard of 1.7 hectares in Trouillas. There are no terraces. HOT STUFF is where the yield higher, 30 hectoliters per hectare. Everything is edited together by Alain, a farm worker in Ghislaine half day, sometimes interns, and friends.
Record
The balance of the Domaine Le Casot Mailloles is not easy to calculate. The costs are high and incomes are low. The costs are high because you're working as before: it cultivates the soil with a hoe and they repaired the terraces by hand. There is even a terrace on the only one vine grows.
Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles: the vineyards
No surprise at harvest, even this is done by hand. Addition they do not reap all some how. We sort the grapes in the vineyards. We cut them off, they look at and if they are good they are in the bucket. If the grapes are too dry or foul, we leave them, that's a Sysiphusarbeit, but it is necessary. Because we have to add no sulfite, the grapes have a high quality. "Because they make everything by hand with the economic efficiency is low (2.5 persons for the 5.1 hectares) and consequently, the cost high.
And the yield? If the income would be higher this could offset the higher costs. The average yield for the whole of France is 68 hectoliters per hectare (INAO, 2005). In Banyuls, the average yield is 30 hectoliters (in 2005 it was only 20 hectoliters after INAO) and Alain Castex scored 20 Hl. Consequently, this low yield can not nearly offset the higher costs. The calculation is simple: higher production costs and lower income yields a higher price for the customer. For Ghislaine it is not easy to charge higher rates. Expensive wines need a good marketing and good word of mouth. "This is not our strength, we are not good sellers. We need people to relieve us of this work, but we can not pay them nothing happens in this direction. "It is evident that marketing is of no strength to Casot Mailloles. They have no website, not even an email address. Even their advertising brochures are not very successful, for me it is really a sad sight, these seven small leaves. Very clear: No marketing, no more expensive wine. Relying on friends.
The friends
Alain et Ghislaine have customers who became friends and they have friends who were helpers. About Claude, physiotherapist in Cannes, customer, friend, helper. I met him on the terraces of the Casot Mailloles. There, the vineyard is very beautiful.
Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles: Claude
There are no black sea, but a rich vegetation. Claude, with a hoe in his hand, told me that he loves his holidays here spending, he told me why: "When the harvest, all the different smells, the grapes are all different, the mature, immature still, all this is true even when I work the floor, I feel the roots and all the smells of the earth. Later, I find this all in the wine then again, I smell it and I tasted it. This is unbelievable, this is magical. "
Claude is not the only one. "Most of our customers are friends and they come then to the wine harvest. Last year we had 36 pickers. "
Wines Casot Mailloles of excited people, I have the impression that a sworn Casot of Maillol become community.
Domaine Le Casot of Mailloles: the wines
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