The
Field of BANNIERES is a SCEA (civil farming company ) created to perennialize
a family wine property dating, at least, of 6 generations.
Indeed,
if one finds the trace of the first ancestors
anchored to Castries since 1651,
with Pierre Coste, this is only into 1768 that one finds the mention "
land owner " for Jacques Coste, mayor of the village during many years,
Justice of the Peace, father of seven children.
One of its sons, Victor Coste,
naturalist, academician, professor with the College of France, made a part of
its research on embryology compared in this property.
Another son, Leon Coste,
take again the field and transmits it to his son Laurent Coste, which had an only
daughter, Léonie Coste. She marries Pierre Guibal, Doctor. Their son, Jean
Guibal, engineer Agri, inherit this exploitation , he gives in state, then bequeaths
it to his three children, the current owners
The
field is located on the grounds of an old Commanderie of Malta, Saint Michel
de Bannières, with ten kilometers in the North-East of Montpellier.
On the commune of CASTRIES, known for its castle and its aqueduct of Paul
Riquet, wine area of tradition, between Provence and Catalogne, in the heart of
Languedoc.
The property is in the center of a small depression,
the plain of Bannières, surrounded of garrigues
and thickets of
pines on the rock exposures, crushed be under the sun of midday and by the deafening
song of the cicadas.
With horizon, one sees the Peak Saint Loup.
Ground with vine for a long time, exploitation had stocks of Tokay dating from
the years 1880 which were destroyed by the freezing of 1956
Organic farming
For
a long time already, we were brought to reason the mode of culture, being
wary of the new molecules, privileging the ploughing with weeding and respectful
vegetable physiology, because it is the sheet who nourishes the fruit.
This with opposition to the last criteria (stripping, training, ceaseless trimming...)
resulting from areas which are not comparable with ours (ground, climate, sun,
dryness).
It is why we direct ourselves towards organic farming
to obtain a certification and a logo, guarantors of our step towards more protection
of environment and our research towards more authenticity of the soil.
Indeed, we think that:
* valorization of the ground and the plant, in the
respect of
natural environment,
* the implementation of the forces of life
according to the seasons, the lunar cycles and the constellations,
* the work
of the ground
constitute a powerful, respectful technique the alive one
and which makes it possible to tend towards a total harmony.
CIt
is this harmony of which we seek
expression in our wines.
The
exploitation is composed of 22 ha vines, 5 ha of cereals, fallow and garrigues
which, formerly sheltered a herd of sheep..
The
vineyard of Castries is installed in the oldest wine-growing zone of Hérault,
on old, rock, thin and dry grounds (end of the secondary and medium of the tertiary
sector).
The grounds are formed with a light layer of topsoil, interfered
broken stones, resting on deeply fissured limestones.
The culture of the vine
developed under Roman occupation (Castries: castrum, the camp), then with
Templiers which installed a Commanderie there, recovery thereafter by Ordre
of Malta.
It is undeniable that this vineyard largely benefitted from
experiment of the ones and others. Invasion of will phylloxera in 1863 then freezing
into 1956 involved important modifications of encépagement: reorganization
with a severe regulation obliging with a selection towards southernmost extra
type of vines producing wines of quality: syrah, merlot, cabernet-sauvignon...
