Aymeric & Marceline Beaufort, Domaine de l’Ocre Rouge

Domaine de l'Ocre Rouge
Dions, France

The farm is located on the plateau of Dions (30) 15 km north-east of Nimes and 15 km of Uzès.
This plateau, former terrace of Gardon, is a few meters from the entrance of the Gardon gorges; It is entirely covered with pebbles rolled with quartz (similar to those of the coasts of the Rhone) interwoven with red ocher clay. So the soil is slightly acid on a rock of hard limestone. It is in this place of wild garrigue that we settled in 1999 and built the cellar in 2002.

The exceptional terroir of rolled pebbles, the low yields and the expression of indigenous yeasts form the style of all their wines.

Both Marceline and Aymeric are working the 10ha in production. The grape varieties include Grenache, Carignan, Syrah, Merlot; The average age is 40 years for Carignan and 15 years for the rest. We have planted since the arrival of Syrah, Merlot, but also Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (because of their origins, it was obvious to plant these grape varieties which are  expressed in their sparkling wines). Their sparkling wine is inspired by the Beaufort family method: handcrafted and manual work, passage in old barrels, aging on lees in bottles, disgorging on the fly.

The yield: 30 Hl / Ha for a density of 4000 feet per hectare, this of course without harvesting in green.

Their particularity is a fermentation by indigenous yeasts and a passage of all their wines in barrels already has several wines in order to give them a micro-oxygenation and a natural clarification without collage or filtration.