Saux
Domaine Sylvain Pechigo
Avenue des Pyrénées
11 300 Lauraguel
The wine of life is beautiful
"For years I believed that the life of a winemaker has to be very beautiful. In the fall, he meets with his friends in the vineyard, they sing, they talk, they laugh and have fun, this is the wine harvest. In winter, wine is made, which is not more difficult, because the yeast does all the work. At the same time, he meets friends, customers and wine lovers who want to try all of his wine. In the spring he walked through the vineyard to see if not replaced a plug or a cracked wire must be repaired. In the summer he supervised, when its grapes ripe for harvest, and so it goes on and on. "
" Later I realized that the life of a winemaker is not quite so romantic, on the contrary it is very hard and sometimes even dangerous. "This is the daily newspaper Le Figaro on 14 October 2007 an article entitled "The vineyard in southern France is threatened by violent extremists", and I quote: "It has not all this staying power. In the Aude department have since the beginning of the crisis, some wine winery committed suicide were faced with ruin. Others, however, discourage the gun no longer afraid to get out of the closet to their exhaustion with penetrating creditors and incorrigible Dealers to make clear. "
You are not alone, Gérard Schivardi, Mayor of Mailhac in the daily newspaper Libération says, 31 March 2007 from its growers, "in my community there have been two suicides. "The suicide
is certainly an exception, but the angst a constant companion. So also with Sylvain Saux, winemaker of Domaine Pechigo in Lauraguel. For him, the problems lie mainly to the low yield.
The harvest is sparse
His harvest in 2007 was about 13 hectoliters per hectare, that is 1733 bottles. Is that really enough? Yes, this is very little if we as the crops in the Charente . Compare The latest figures we can www.charente.pref.gouv.fr on the site. Manual be consulted. End of January 2008, the average yield 137 hectoliters per hectare. A different number: in 2004 harvested a total of 9.9 million hectoliters.
Pechigo Domaine Sylvain Saux
short, 10 times more than with Sylvain. That is, the yield of a hectare in the Charente corresponds to the yield of 10 hectares at Sylvain. You are not agree. Here are the latest figures from the INAO (Institut National de l'Origine et de la qualité) on French wine harvest in 2005: with a total production of 53,314,150 hectoliters per hectare over an area of 7.77.180 , the average yield of 68 hectoliters per hectare. Sylvain would reap no 137 hectoliters per hectare, not even 68, but he would love to increase its income, 13 hectoliters per hectare, not enough to survive. He explains: "The goal of a grower, it can be to create a biodynamic wine and make a living. In my case it was different. My goal was just to create a biodynamic wine, and only then I noticed that some are missing something. And I've added an additional objective: and so I would like to earn some money to survive. In very rare cases, the money comes naturally when you making money not as an end in Head has. If I had thought so I would have noticed earlier, that survival with such low yields is not possible. I would have acted sooner. "So what does he do? He lays still for a hectare of vineyard, which yields almost nothing and then he used fertilizer. "This year I bought 15 tons of fertilizer and that I would verkompostieren. This results in about 10 tonnes of compost which I will deploy to 2 to 3 hectares of vineyard - and this will increase the yield. "
The sulfites
Sylvain really loves not the sulfur and sulfites. He used sulfurized barrels. The barrel interior is disinfected using it as a sulfur-containing Fuse is burnt. That could leave traces of sulfite in the wine. If he has the impression of something sulfite wine could tolerate, then it adds up to 20 milligrams per liter. This is little compared with the legally allowed limit (160-400 mg per liter). He makes many experiments so that the wine ferments very quickly, for here he has a problem with his wine, "La Mothe". has
La Mothe
A few weeks ago, I Jean-Louis tells of a white wine, "La Mothe". I quote him: "This 2005 vintage is balanced, has structure, is round and keeps the flavor in the mouth. Come over and try it. He comes from a Organic winery in Malras. His assistant Delphine sings the same chorus as I and she has brought a few bottles of it. "And who's the wine? He has his wine cellar in Malras but he lives in Lauraguel. Yes, it is actually our winery, Sylvain Saux. Yes, and now he speaks of his top wine, he says that the 2006 is not yet mature, but he would like to hear our opinion and bring a bottle - La Mothe. We cost him and Jean-Louis gives his verdict: "The 2006 is too young, too green and the acid is still in the forefront." Later, after a rehearsal, he said that had to dolphins from the 2005 the same properties as now, the 2006 and it is only after about 8 months mature. If the 2006 just mature like that? We very much hope, because there is not one more bottle of 2005 vintage.
Pechigo Domaine La Mothe
But in any case, with Sylvain La Mothe confronted with a problem: "it takes a long time until the wine improved, and the acid occurs in the background. If we can not wait for it well enough and if we wait too long we have money problems. The La Mothe, which is 80% of our production. " If the wine is finished once he has no problem with his heel, his customer network buys everything.
The sale
"The majority of buyers Are wineries, wholesalers and some a little bit of selling to restaurants and for export. Sometimes even those who visit us, but we expand any further, so there is no sign and we are more or less impossible to find. Why? Today it is cleaned up, but a short time ago it was total chaos. To receive customer you need a place that is beautiful and always available. But sometimes gets lost anyway chance someone here wants to buy the wine. The other day I was coming forth to pick up a hoe, I have met a guy who says he has come from Perpignan and there always buy our wine. Now it is no more and therefore he is here to buy at what "
Domaine Pechigo. Saux Sylvain Pet
Why Organic?
"agriculture is simply a bunch of large scam. This is a shame even know the types of the Chamber of Agriculture that there is too much environmental damage, but they know nothing about recent developments in agriculture, soil science, for example. They still think the classic patterns of soil analysis, and that's no good. The substitution theory is: a harvest weigh and calculate that there are much nitrogen in it, as much as much phosphate and potash, and this must be the ground artificially be fed back. That might be so with tomatoes growing in nutrient solutions but not with a living earth. The earth that is alchemy. There are now such a high mortality ground that the soil behaves like a lifeless
substrate, such as cantilever with the tomatoes. But if you have soils that are not inanimate substrate, then this is quite different, and the soil scientists confirm exactly with their recent analysis. If you
therefore has a minimum of scientific understanding would have to say we are in error. But no, it still acts as if the scientific analysis of 100 and 200 years ago remain valid today. If you look at everything once made aware of then has, it is reasonable to switch to organic farming. Even better, the biodynamics. Biodynamics, that is for me the most reasonable and consistent theory. You can explain the phenomena to which we are gestoβen. "
His course
" At university I did a degree in mathematics. After that I was interested in agriculture and have a BPREA (Brevet Professionnel de Responsable d'exploition Agricole) made, which is a training which has given me an insight into what is now happening in agriculture so and it gives me the right to grant. But it is an education full of nonsense and contradictions. Quite interesting were just management and law. Also Agronomy was quite interesting from the point that I got to know the conventional farming, and now better informed white, what do my neighbors. It was also my father and wineries during the training I have with him conventionally grown wine. "
The state prefers the winemakers
The State of the winemakers prefer? Yes, I think so. Sylvain says he received from the state a very good support.
"Every year I get a premium for organic Cultivation. They are always 2,000 € and I think from next year even € 4,000. All farmers who grow organically entitled to this premium, which is a lump sum payment, equal for all, regardless of whether Groβ or small business. For me it's great. HOT STUFF you do not need to fill out a bunch of forms for it.
is different for the conversion premium, which was much more complicated. That was a real tape. If one switches to organic farming you get a premium for three years and worth it. I think I got time for three years 18 000 francs per hectare. This represents about 12,000 € a year for my vineyard as a whole, and for three years long, that was a really good support. "
contradictions
It's getting late and we must leave. I ask a final question: Sylvain has learned anything during his training on organic farming? "no. It was all about chemical weed and pest extermination and synthetic fertilizers. "
It would be really better if you start already in training with bio, that would be more efficient.
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