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third component: the "mansengs"
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A principal factor in the style
of our wines is the grape variety "Manseng," the "Petit"
and the "Gros", both of which are perfectly adapted
to our soils and climate. Although these two varieties
are entirely separate in style, they share a joint history
in these Pyrenean foothills: they had already been identified
at the end of the 18th Century in the Béarn department.
The Gros Manseng has always been a more prolific and
widespread variety, blended with Courbu to make easy-drinking
young wines which were drunk all over the region. The
Petit Manseng was reserved for better cuvées designed
to age in bottle.
The "Mansengs" are amongst the
latest ripening varieties, which bud very early (end
of March) and ripen very late (October or November).
They have an unusually
long ripening period. They grow very tall and require
high trellising systems that are strong enough to resist
the westerly winds (hence the numerous stakes); despite
the cutting back that takes place in summer, the rows
still stand like mini-walls of vegetation at between
2.4 and 2.5 metres in height. The training methods (attaching
the vine shoots and creating maximum leaf exposure)
are very important to allow maximum photosynthesis to
take place. The yields are nonetheless very low for
the vines on the slopes :
- 36 hl/ha on average for the 10ha of vines (Gros and
Petit Manseng) harvested in 2001 .
- 224 hl/ha in 2002 .
- 33 hl/ha in 2003.
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These yields are closely linked
to low vine density on the terraces but the Petit
Manseng, such as it is, very rarely produces yields
in excess of 25hl/ha on the slopes.
The Vineyard and the Terraces
:
At Clos Lapeyre, we currently
have about 60% of the vineyard planted with Petit
Manseng, the remainder is planted with Gros Manseng:
the Petit Courbu vines, of which we have a few thousand,
were planted in the "Vitatge Viehl" (meaning "old
vines" in Occitan) in the 1940's .
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Between 1972 and
1975, five hectares were planted, from which three ha
were planted on terraces. These terraces were amongst
the first planted in Jurancon, along with those of Camin
Larredya, and their formation resembles two adjacent
amphitheatres: the highest part of the Clos Lapeyre
was replanted between 1982 and 1984. The Navaillés and
Poudempa vine parcels, planted respectively with Gros
Manseng and Petit Manseng, date from 1991 and 1993.
The magnificent "amphitheatre of Ducos" was planted
between 1994 and 1998, exclusively with Petit Manseng,
all terraced. For a few years now, our vineyard has
not expanded any further because of very low permitted
levels of planting (600 to 700 square metres per year).
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For the last ten years, we
have only grafted Petit Manseng onto low-yielding
rootstocks (Riparia, 101-14) and have planted
in higher density: 3600 plants per ha compared
to traditional levels of 2700 to 2900.
In the past, when most of the activity was crop
farming, the spacing of the rows was such that
one single large tractor could harvest all the
crops. .
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The terracing, which allows safe exploitation
of the very steep slopes, only allows very low
planting density, up to 1000 or 1100 vines per
hectare, as the edge of the terrace is often
6-8 metres high. Through the years, we have
realised that the significant excavation works
needed to create the different levels of terrace
is not very good for the deep-rooted vines.
Today, thanks to the evolution of traction
material, we are replanting the vineyards following
the angle of the slope (as in times gone by)
by equipping ourselves with caterpillar tractors.
We are also planting at the higher density of
6000 vines per hectare.
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Welcome
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