The Costières de Nîmes
Throughout the seasons

Head to the ponds of Petite Camargue

This week, head south, between sky and sea, above the ponds of Petite Camargue.

Here, overlooking Gallician and Franquevaux, our typically Rhone terroir begins while our rolled pebble terroir ends. In this month of January, the vines are dormant. While the mimosas have not yet bloomed, despite the cold and the Mistral wind, our winegrowers are hard at work during this winter pruning period. Winter is also the period during which our estates practice #vitipastoralism, ideal for controlling vegetation cover while naturally fertilizing the soil.

Meeting this month with Jeremy Teissier and Ludovic Pascal, respectively president and winemaker of Gallician Signature.

Regenerative agriculture

For this 2nd opus in our series on those who make our AOC, let’s go to Caissargues, south of Nîmes, where the land of Costières starts to meet the winemaker Michel Gassier.

As a fervent defender of regenerative agriculture, it is now applied throughout his Château de Nages estate. This philosophy aims to reduce tillage, maintain a better balance with its environment and continuously nourish the soil thanks to permanent vegetation covers.

300 nest boxes for the AOP

The environment is increasingly at the heart of our AOC

For this 3rd theme in our series on those who make our AOC, we wanted to talk to you about the installation on our vineyard of more than 300 nest boxes and roosts for bats and tits. Around fifteen estates in our Aop, including Domaine Pierre Teissonnière, were able to benefit from this operation carried out by the union. A pioneer of respect for the environment and the preservation of biodiversity since 2007with the signing of the environmental landscape charter, the union continues its commitment through this action with a 2023-2024 roadmap that places the environment increasingly at the heart of its strategy.

Biodynamic horns

For this 4th episode of our series on AOP, biodynamics is in the spotlight!

Some winegrowers, in our AOP, one of the most organic in France, work biodynamically, such as Château l’Ermite d’Auzan.

Today in this estate, cow horns buried for 6 months are being dug up to create organic matter under the eyes of Magali Saumade, president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Gard. As a breeder of a renowned cattle farm in Manade Saumade, she was very interested in this practice.

Look at these new environmentally friendly practices that bring life to our soils.

Music therapy

Discover the most fascinating secrets of music therapy

For this 5th opus of our series “Throughout the seasons in Costières de Nîmes”, we will focus on music therapy developed in one of the wine estate of our AOP!

At Château d’Or et de Gueules, for 5 years and several times a day, a gentle symphony can be heard in the heart of the vines.

Did you know? The vines would be sensitive to music, but be careful not just any music.

In this incredible video, Diane and Chloé reveal the most fascinating secrets of music therapy to you. Growth, protection against diseases or quality of grapes, the benefits of these melodies would be numerous. Let’s go for an immersion in the heart of the mysteries of music and vines.

Costières and the Romans

Let’s go back in time, some 2,000 years ago!

The Romans had already discovered the excellence of the Costières terroir to make it a wine production and export zone throughout Europe!

For this 6th video in our series, we take you to Mas des Tourelles in Beaucaire. It is here, in this magnificent area of our AOP, that the amphoras of the entire region were crafted.

Fabrice Bigot, doctor in Roman archaeology, tells you this wonderful story! Watch…

JeuDiVin event

What if we did JeuDiVin together, with the Pazac cellar?

Jean Louis Boyer, the cellar master, takes us under his wing to present their vineyard to us and take us to the Aop wine tasting evenings during JeuDiVin… until the end of the night.

Harvest

The harvest, the culmination of a year of care!

Head to the Terre des Chardons estate live with us this highlight of our AOP and learn more about the beginnings of winemaking.

Vegetal master plan

Do you know what is currently the vegetal master plan developed by the AOP?

We take you to meet Arnaud Million, Cérès Flore technical director.

He is responsible for collecting seeds and endemic species, commissioned by the Costières de Nîmes appellation in order to determine a vegetal master plan for the entire Christian Gourjon territory .

Because we are a pioneering appellation in the ecological transition, implement such a plan throughout the territory aims to help our winegrowers in the choice of species to plant in order to revegetate the borders of plots and to allow ever more biodiversity on our vineyard.

Winemaking, from grapes to wine

The secrets and mysteries of winemaking

Discover the secrets and mysteries of vinification and macerations from Pascal GLAS, winemaker and creator of Domaine de Poulvarel in Sernhac.

You have always wanted to know everything about the production of our AOP wines, so dive with the winemaker into the intimacy of his cellar and discover the birth of the 3 colors of the great 2023 vintage which is being prepared.

The art of blending

Crucial and final moment for our winegrowers

Crucial and final moment for our winegrowers in the creation of a vintage of our AOP: blending! We went that time to Château Mourgues du Grès in the privacy of the Collard family. Together with the cellar master, Anne, François and Romain create the vintages of tomorrow. Discover how each blend is a precious, capital and secret moment for each estate of our appellation. A moment during which the work of an entire year comes to fruition under the hands of the winegrowers to give birth to the magic of a new cuvée fruit of a new vintage.

Vintage in bottles

Follow us in this last episode of 2023 to discover the bottling stage at Château Beaubois and follow Fanny Boyer in an exclusive tasting of the 2023 vintage at the 2-stared restaurant “Alexandre” of Michel Kayser with his sommelier Lionel Delsol.