FrançaisOfficially organic
Going for organic certification
Carignan Vineyard
We have been farming our vineyards organically since the we started in 2012. We have decided to make that official and have signed up with Ecocert, an organisation that requires compliance with their standards for organic certification. The process takes three years so we should be officially organic, and be able to put that cute little green leaf logo on our bottles from 2022.
What took us so long?
There are several reasons why we didn’t do this right from the beginning. Firstly the fee for certification, yet another cost for a small business. Secondly, who needs more paperwork? Thirdly, and more fundamentally, is the recognition that there are different ways of growing grapes and respecting the environment and following a set of criteria to get organic certification is just one of them. However, many customers have asked whether we are organic and an official certification or logo is much easier for consumers to understand that our ‘de facto organic’ explanation.
What do we put on our vineyards?
Sheep grazing in our Carignan vineyard
Organic viticulture means using no chemical fungicides, insecticides or weedkillers. Compost and fertilisers must be natural ie from plants or animals/animal waste. We do use sprays in our vineyards to stop the vines and grapes getting fungal diseases or eaten by insects (particularly the lava of the grape vine moth) but in organic farming these sprays come from a natural as opposed to a synthetic source. Here is a list of what we put on our vineyards in the last 5 years and why. In approximate order of the frequency of application. All are certified organic products.
- sulphur (fungal disease – powdery mildew)
- extract of orange (fungal diseases, so use less copper and sulphur)
- copper (fungal disease – downy mildew)
- Compost – plant or cow dung
- organic fertilizer, made from bird or pig poo. And sheep poo! (see photo)
- Pheromone pods (from 2019), to sexually confuse grape vine moth males and so replace insecticides such as ..
- Bacillus Thuringiensis, a naturally occurring bacterium (grape vine moth)
- Spinosad insecticide, a bacterium originally discovered in sugar cane (grape vine moth)
- Pyrethrins, an insecticide extracted from chrysanthemums. By law, grape growers have to use insecticide to reduce populations of cicadelle, the leaf hopper that spreads the disease flavescence dorée.
Organics in the winery
We are pretty non-interventionist in our winemaking so adhering to organic rules in the winery (eg lower sulphur) shouldn’t be a problem. A topic for another post!
Read MoreWhen to harvest?
The decision when to harvest the grapes is vitally important. The links to the videos below explain how to assess grape ripeness. It’s not just about sugar levels, but flavour and tannin ripeness too. And don’t forget to look at the colour of the pips!
Preparation for harvest -checking ripeness of Syrah vineyard
Checking grape ripeness in our new Syrah vineyard. Step one – collecting grapes from different parts of the vineyard
Posted by Domaine La Tasque on Monday, September 3, 2018
Checking sugar and flavour/tannin ripeness in Syrah vineyard
Sugar level is one way of measuring grape ripeness but the most important consideration for red grapes is whether the skins and tannins are ripe.
Posted by Domaine La Tasque on Monday, September 3, 2018
Bottling 2016 La Tasque
Bottling 2016 Syrah and Carignan
We bottled our 2016 Syrah and 2016 Carignan yesterday, 2500 bottles in all. It was a small but perfectly formed vintage – our best yet we think. It needs more time to mature in bottle so it won’t be released until next year. In the meantime, here are some photos of bottling, using a high tech bottling line from the back of a lorry.
Making up boxes beforehand
Merve and Mathilda with Syrah
A shady Simon with Carignan
Packing Syrah 2016
Pallet of 2016 Syrah
Trish and Merve packing 2016 Carignan
Et Voila! La Tasque Carignan
2017 – Frost and fruit (or not)
2017 in the vineyard – highs and lows
The morning of the 18th April was when the big frost hit the Languedoc. Not all vineyards were affected – it depended on topography but unfortunately our vineyards were badly hit. Within a couple of hours our vines had gone from looking lovely and green and healthy to this. Approximately 80% of Syrah vines were frosted. 60% of the Carignan.
Carignan before the frost
Carignan after the frost
Pretty depressing, I can tell you.
But nature is amazing. Within a month, the secondary buds had started to burst and now the vineyards are green and healthy with lots of leaves. The only problem is that often these secondary buds are not fruitful. In the Carignan, the bottom half of the vineyard, which was completely frosted, has no grapes. Lots of leaves but literally NO grapes. The top section of the Carignan is, mercifully, a different story. There was much less damage and there are some promising bunches of grapes forming.
Carignan grapes – June
Syrah – grapes from primary and secondary buds on the same vine
The Syrah presents more of a challenge. More of the secondary buds are fruitful but they are approximately 5 weeks behind the fruit formed on the primary buds. And often on the same vine! The photo below illustrates this very clearly. The secondary fruit is only just flowering. This means that the harvest will have to be staggered as the grapes will have be ripe at different times. Selection will be key.
One thing is sure. 2017 will be a very small vintage.
Read MoreCompost
Composting the vineyards
30 tonnes of organic compost was delivered at the beginning of this year. Working out how to distribute it onto the vineyards when we don’t own any equipment to do so took some working out, but we got there in the end.
So here is the organic compost, made of vegetable and plant matter. It is well composted and smells wonderful – sort of mushroomy with pine and forest floor.
We borrowed a tip up trailer that was narrow enough to fit between the vines in the Carignan vineyard and hired a bobcat to load it.
We composted every second row. Here is the trailer about to start to discharge its load in the Carignan vineyard.
And here is the compost, evenly spread in the vineyard.
See ‘compost – the movie’ for more information on our facebook page!
Read MoreWild flowers
Spring in the vineyard
Spring is here and although the vines are not yet budding, there are plenty of flowers blooming amongst the vines. The most prevalent wild flower is the white ‘false rocket’ or diplotaxis erucoides. It can grow so thick that it looks more like snow in the vineyards and its peppery scent is pungent. At Domaine La Tasque, we leave the flowers to grow until the vines start to leaf before ploughing them back into the soil. They provide compost and bulk for the soil and don’t compete with the vine for water and nutrients during budbreak and flowering.
Wild rocket in Carignan vineyard
Wild rocket in Carignan vineyard
Flowers in Syrah vineyard
Between the vines, Syrah
