Terre des Chardons
In 1999, Jérôme Chardon took over the thirty hectares of the family farm, devoted to market gardening and arboriculture. He was then twenty-seven years old and had a taste for adventure: he planted nine hectares of Syrah, Grenache and Clairette de Bellegarde vines which he began to cultivate according to the principles of biodynamic cultivation, which was then not put into practice only by a few avant-gardists.
Today, the Terre des Chardons estate produces two vintages in AOC Clairette de Bellegarde – this white wine, a precious and confidential specialty of the village of Bellegarde, is made from a unique grape variety: Clairette blanche – as well as five vintages in AOC Costières from Nîmes: one in rosé and four in red. All are Demeter certified, one of the two biodynamic labels.
Reds, aged in vats and lightly filtered, “we are often told that they are reminiscent of those from the north of the Rhône Valley for the finesse of the tannins and the freshness”, reports Paul Vialle who accompanies Jérôme in the management of an estate which is also home to around twenty hectares of olive trees and market gardens. As well as half of an area planted in Cinsault at the beginning of 2017, which will initially be used to test new blends of red and rosé.
Special feature of the estate: each year, a portion of the bottles is distributed via the activist barge “Remissions à flots”, which, by using the waterways that connect the South of France to the Paris region, makes it possible to build short circuits between producers and consumer cooperatives.