Domaine La Croix Gratiot

The Domaine de la Croix Gratiot is located on the clay-limestone hills that surround the Thau basin. Our vineyard covers 33ha, it benefits from the sea trade winds and the scents of the garrigue. This terroir is rich in colors: the red and yellow of the clay-limestone soil, the greens of the scrubland and the blues of the sky and the Thau lagoon.

The Mediterranean climate allows the grapes to reach optimum maturity and fully express their typicity.

Attached to maintaining biodiversity, we plant multi-species hedges at the edge of the plot and on the banks of the stream that winds through the estate. Bat nesting boxes on the sunny facade and at the edge of the stream facilitate the activity of pipistrelles, predators of Eudemis.

These moths in the larval stages do a lot of damage in the vineyard. We also try to limit them by the practice of sexual confusion.

We prefer to use mechanical weed control over chemical weed control. We grass some plots, every other row. In 2013, after a satisfactory test of sexual confusion on 10ha, we extend it to an additional 20ha, in 2014. Today we are placing this technique on the entire vineyard. We also practice layering: the rooting of a branch lying on the ground while it is still connected to the mother plant. This forms an independent and already well-developed plant.

We are interested in Biodynamic viticulture . We train each year and use its preparations in the management of the vineyard in order to intensify the life of the soil, the plant and their exchanges.

Quality efforts have led us to harvest the white and night rosé wines in order to limit the risk of oxidation and limit excessive consumption of frigories.

What a joy to get up in the calm of the night to meet the grapes and take full advantage of its aromas unveiled during the different stages of vinification!

Each year new barrels are purchased to allow rotation but also to carry out experiments. Since 2014, we have been carrying out breeding trials in dolia, handcrafted by the French Briqueteries, which carry out soil and grain size trials.