From Dry Farming to… Farming Water

An exciting new chapter is being written in the history of a centuries-old estate.

This Friday, March 14, 2024 marks the end of pruning on our magnificent vines, which have been cultivated using the Languedoc goblet method since 1701 and 10 generations ago. One more cycle, one more winter. 

What conclusions can we draw from this 2024 vintage, and what can we expect from the upcoming 2025 vintage?

Low yields as much a consequence of drought as a choice

The drought we've been experiencing for the past 2 years leads to very concrete results: -30% yields in 2023 and -50% in 2024. We harvested some lovely grapes and produced some fine cuvées, but the volume wasn't there. 

The vine preserves itself and we support its reactions by asking less of it: “adjusting the load to the vigor” is one of the essential principles of the gentle pruning we apply at Le Pech d'André. The vines were able to build up fewer reserves this year, and the pruning we carried out this winter reflected this. We therefore know that the 2025 vintage will not be very abundant, otherwise we will exhaust and weaken the vines. 

The rains we received this winter and which are still arriving in early spring will enable us, if they continue, to adjust this balance in the spring, during green pruning: when disbudding, we can choose to leave more branches and therefore more bunches.

Farming without water

We've always grown vines without irrigation. We're convinced that vines can produce under our soil and climate conditions, especially if we're not looking for high yields but rather a qualitative objective, and provided we adopt suitable practices: goblet pruning, small plots, living, covered soil, a natural environment with trees.

But with climate change, its excesses and its sometimes-brutal variations (at least as brutal as those who think that not naming these changes is enough for them not to exist...), this approach may find its limits.

Farming water

In recent years, knowledge of the water cycle has undergone profound changes. We now know that 60% of rainfall comes from evapotranspiration. Simply put, it's trees and plants that make the rain! So, sowing and planting make the rain grow!

These strategies are even more effective when deployed on a regional scale. That's why we're involved in the collective actions deployed by the Chemin Cueillant organization to train and support farmers in the Minervois region. 

At Le Pech d'André, we can also take action to retain and make the most of every drop of water we receive. This is the objective of regenerative hydrology, which we have been training in for the past two years, in order to define an action plan that will be deployed on the estate over the coming years: improving and creating ditches and hedges, creating ponds, using remarkable contour lines (keylines) to circulate water...

Agroecology means working with living things, not against them... but it doesn't mean doing nothing! We have begun to diversify our plantations by choosing species typical of the southern Mediterranean region.

To support our respect for the Earth and help us meet these challenges, nothing could be simpler: each of our cuvées is a different expression of our work, but you'll find all our passion in every bottle!