The Château Vari, situated in Monbazillac, is a family-owned wine estate, producing organic wine since 2012. It covers 20 hectares in AOC Bergerac and AOC Monbazillac.
The Château Vari
Since 1994, Sylvie and Yann Jestin have been producing open, well-balanced and delicate wines with character, on a clayey-limestone « terroir ». After going through the conversion period in 2010 and 2011, Château Vari now produces organic wines as from the 2012 vintage.
Organic farming
Attentive to the quality whilst respecting the « terroir », the Jestin family have always farmed the estate through ploughing the soil and limiting the use of chemical products. Convinced that organic farming is the future, Yann Jestin decided to start coverting the estate in 2009. The results are incredible : plants and wildlife have returned and the wines are even better!
The estate begun the conversion to organic farming in 2009. It covers 22 hectares, of which 20 are in full production. The Monbazillac takes up 14.5 hectares, the red grape vines ; 5 hectares, and 0.5 hectares are destined for the white wine. The soils are clay, with limestone surfacing in certain areas, which brings lots of freshness to the wines. The mean age of the vines is 40 years.
The most important change in the last two years is the conversion to organic farming. Respecting the wildlife and plants is very important in the vegetative balance. The small insects (grasshoppers, ladybirds…) are becoming abundant in the vines, helping to fight efficiently against the acarids and the aphids, therefore eliminating chemical treatments which would have killed the small insects.
At the same time, we don’t use any chemical weedkiller throughout the rows of vines, instead we plough the rows with a machine that also ploughs between the trunks of the vines.
These organic techniques are very important to fight against the vine predators, in order to offer you wines which respect the environment. We understand that this trend is growing, and facing the increase of « consume’acter » we make an effort to preserve the « terroir », worth so much to our ancestors and essentiel for the future generations.