camin larredya la part davant 2020

for jean-marc grussaute, it is a question of revealing the jurançon terroir and signing the vintages. his meticulous work on these parcels planted at an altitude of up to 325 metres and protected from the violent westerly winds by a hilly environment, is devoted to his 4 dry, sweet and syrupy white wine cuvées. the gros manseng (25% of the vineyard) and the petit manseng (70%) are suitable for these late harvests, which take place from the end of october to mid-november. the petit courbu (5% of the vineyard) gives dry wines. reasonable yields of 30 to 60 hl/ha for the gros manseng and 15 to 25 hl/ha for the petit, give power and character to the wines of camin larredya. initially growing vegetables, jean grussaute, the father, gradually planted petit and gros manseng vines and brought his production of 4 hectares to the nearby cooperative winery until the 1970s. jean-marc, his son, studied viticulture and oenology and in 1988 (at the age of 20) withdrew from the cooperative to embark on a new programme of planting and restructuring the winery. today, stainless steel vats, a pneumatic press and air conditioning have modernised the ancestral methods. the 8.5 hectares, 4 of which are terraced, plus one hectare of purchased grapes, occupy 10 people full time. jean-marc grussaute, retired from professional rugby, has managed to surround himself with influential neighbours (charles hours from the clos uroulat estate) and to open up to new ideas for quality control (herody method, named after the researcher in geology and pedology to naturally improve soil fertility, consultation of the lunar cycle). thus the soil is worked "à la paysanne", the addition of compost and grassing contribute to this qualitative effort. the vineyard is managed "like a garden": decoctions of plants or algae without neglecting the bordeaux mixture or sulphur if necessary. the grapes are pressed whole without exogenous yeasts, the temperatures are controlled, and the wine is matured in barrels with stirring (up to 18 months on the lees for the 100% petit manseng cuvée.