Elisabeth LaFourcade, Domaine Les Luquettes
Provence - Bandol
The domaine Les Luquettes is located on a clayey-chalky soil 35 hectares large, 12 hectares are planted with vine plant ; it lays down the Provencal village of La Cadière d’Azur.
In 1996, their familial exploitation, strengthened by an experience and a know-how transmitted since five generations, decides to take a new orientation: The young generation begins to sell the wine in bottles.
The cellar, built in 1852, equipped with large cask and big machines, was used every year to get the wine matured, a wine which was only wholesaled until then. In 1996 the cellar is modernized respecting the environment: tank repair and the casks are being replaced by new smaller barrels.
Only the old wine press, non hydraulic vertical press, built in 1892, is conserved and used every year.
In 1997, a new adventure begins with the first bottles of the Domaine Les Luquettes.
They work the land in a traditional way, to propose quality products. The vine plants are ploughed and worked manually. No weed killers have been used on their property for more than 20 years. The only treatments used are copper and sulphur. For insects, they use auxiliaries and hormonal traps.
They also have a flock of 400 ewes which provide natural fertilization, only potassic slag and potassium are spread in order to bring the necessary trace elements. The vineyard is unploughed from September to April, in order to let the flock graze.
Every year, a “green harvest” is done at the beginning of July, to maintain a production of 40 hectoliters per hectare.
The harvest are done manually, the grape is sorted two times: first, by the cutter, and then by another person at the bucket of the tractor.
