Welcoming the future at the right time on the grounds of Château l'Hospitalet
Support, care, monitoring and follow-up of the lunar calendar, Marc-Olivier Trompette, manager of Château l'Hospitalet, is a convinced biodynamicist, as much in the vineyards as in his own garden. A manager who listens to his terroir with powerful magnetism, like the wines of La Clape.
The harvests follow one another but are not alike. Each year has its specificities and each vintage is unique. With always this constant, that of the quest for optimum maturation , central in the production of the best Gérard Bertrand vintages .
Marc-Olivier Trompette is ready to welcome the future of the 2021 harvest. However, the dates are not set in advance. And it is only after increased monitoring that the plots are harvested one after the other, separately, according to precise criteria: " At Gérard Bertrand, we push the maturities to their maximum to have optimum phenological balances and maturities. This method allows us to produce the great wines that we supply each year."
The harvest time can then extend over two and a half months. A pivotal period that gives full scope to the different typicalities of the plots and soils of La Clape . For Marc-Olivier, "it is an intense period of monitoring. We can compare the vineyard to a young child. We monitor it so that nothing happens to it. We do everything possible to ensure that it develops correctly and without any accidents along the way. We tour all our plots two to three times a week and we also carry out analyses. The aim is to accompany the grapes as far as possible and to achieve the quality expected by Gérard Bertrand ."
In search of a natural balance
At the origin of a good wine is the grape. And to achieve the excellence of the bunches, the Gérard Bertrand estates practice biodynamics . More than a practice, biodynamics represents an art of living for Marc-Olivier: "We seek a balance and are in a perspective of understanding the plant. As for people, we try to understand its problems and interpret what it presents to us visually. We work a lot on feelings and apply herbal teas, natural preparations to treat them or help them to establish themselves well. "
In biodynamics, treatments are not automatic. Unlike conventional viticulture, the soil is worked only when there is a need corroborated by analyses. More complex, this method requires a strong commitment from the teams, close collaboration between nature and science as well as consideration of the different terroirs.
A vine, several terroirs
On the La Clape massif, two terroirs predominate. The first, clayey, allows an interesting water reserve because the water is gradually returned to the vines in summer. The second, limestone type, is characterized by warmer soils. These are plots on which maturity arrives earlier by resonance of the sun. The wine from this soil has a bright, fresh and saline character.
When the harvest is over, the soil will reclaim its rights, but Marc-Olivier's team will not have said its last word. It will help the vines to gently enter dormancy: "It's time to restimulate the soil, to loosen it, to provide it with trace elements and amino acids in order to allow a good restart next year. "
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