vignoble

We cultivate 18 plots of land spread more or less evenly over the 4 rural districts which carry the Vézelay appellation: Asquins, Saint-Père, Tharoiseau and Vézelay.
Our vines are 20 years old on average.
The geology here is quite unusual as while the granite Morvan massif was coming into being it forced limestone strata up to the surface.
Most of our vineyards are located on the most ancient strata, the Bajocian, or upper and lower Bathonian limestone and others on Liassic marlstone.
Just to make things even more complicated (!), there are major differences between one vineyard and another and three main types of topsoil:

Shallow and stony soils, lacking in clays where the harvest is small and the grapes very ripe. For instance the majority of la Châtelaine.

Blue or grey clay-based soils which produce fruity wines, and even when the year has been hot, the acidity remains good.

Rich, red clay soils, difficult to cultivate and which need to be harvested as late as possible in the season, produce, on the whole, very structured mineral-rich wines.

Not only the complex geology but the orientation of the vineyards needs to be taken into account. Our vineyards are south-east and south-west facing. The south-west ones provide particularly good conditions for our Chardonnay because they have sun later in the evening in September and this often enhances the maturity.
The climate is typical for Burgundy: cold in winter, hot in summer with storms which we really dread. The striking difference between day and night temperatures has a major influence on the grapes, and means we can conserve the acidity of the grapes and make elegant white wines.

The environment is not just a illusory concept for us. We take ecology seriously and, rather than using chemical herbicides to free our vines from weeds, we harrow and plough the land. We combat disease by using natural remedies such as the famous Bordeaux mixture which is basically copper sulphate. This method respects the plants, the soil, the environment and safeguards the quality of our own lives.