Didier BARRAL

A winemakernature in the Languedoc

Didier Barral, these are renowned wines, healthy, pleasant to drink and easily digestible! In search of an authentic expression of his terroir, Faugères, Didier spares no effort in the vineyard and produces superb natural wines. What a long and beautiful journey since he settled on his father's schist in Lenthéric in the early 1990s!

Vineyard work that respects the living world

Around his vines, he reconstitutes an almost unique system of organic polyculture-breeding(cows grazing in the vines, caterpillar tractors to avoid compacting the soil, compost prepared from recycled cardboard boxes, bat nesting boxes).... Here, everything has been done naturally, by dint of hard work and common sense to encourage the life of the soil. And yet, we have come a long way since we took over the farm in 1993. To improve the permeability of his soils, he first relied on earthworms, the best allies for fertile soil. Today, he reduces to a minimum the use of machinery that compacts the soil too much, and no longer uses any chemical treatments.

Didier Barral's wines

Didier does not use any sulphur or copper in the vinification process, and his wines are free of added sulphite for our pleasure. To enrich them and encourage earthworms, he has acquired a herd of cattle and a few horses, which graze the vines in winter. The animals bring organic matter to the plots and pre-prune the vines by eating the upper part of the shoots. The rest of the year, the cattle graze fallow land and former vineyard plots that have been converted into permanent grassland. Never short of ideas, Didier Barral is multiplying tests to encourage biological control of parasites. Hedges have been planted between the plots of land to provide shelter for the auxiliaries and he has even built bat nesting boxes to offer refuge to these precious allies who, at night, devour many of the insects responsible for the grape worm. In short, it's great for Petites Caves !