Côts Castle Visit the Vineyards / Oenotourism in Bayon-sur-Gironde

Côts Castle is a traditional family property. Created in 1930 by Pierre Bergon my grandfather, it was in 2012 that I joined the adventure.

Gilles my father had kept his father's cultivation method, favoring tillage over treatments. Indeed, the first 10 hectares of vines have always been plowed, grassed every other row and pruned in the traditional way. Until the 1990s he plowed the nearest plots on horseback. Organic certification in 1999 was obvious.

After growing up in the middle of the family vineyard, I followed a technical wine training course, from the White Tower to the Montagne Saint-Émilion high school, including a BTS in Carcassonne. I then went abroad to learn about other techniques and production methods. One year in Australia, New South Wales, and one year in the United States, Oregon. When I returned to France, I joined the Nicolas stores in Paris and then in London as a wine merchant.

The vineyard is located on one of the best plateaus in the town of Bayon-sur-Gironde. With exceptional sunshine and vines planted on the hillside. It benefits from an exposure on southwestern slopes and silty clay-limestone soil, as well as a few plots on red gravel.

It covers an area of ​​around 20 hectares today.

A typical Bordeaux grape variety with a particularity; my father had kept a good quantity of Malbec and some Cabernet Sauvignon, not wanting to pluck everything to plant only Merlot.

The harvested juices are vinified in the traditional way, fermentation is done with indigenous yeasts, without adding any wine input. The macerations are long (between 5 and 7 weeks) in buried cement vats.

Following on from our switch to organic, I decided to switch the entire vineyard to Biodynamics, it is certified by Demeter in 2020.

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