• The white harvests have started in Entre-Deux-Mers and if the year has been difficult, the vintage looks promising. 

  • Julien Ferran, installed organically, harvests part of his plots by hand, for example for his top-of-the-range bottles. 

  • It values ​​a large part of its production for export, mainly to the United States and Germany. 

In the hilly countryside of Entre-deux-mers, an hour from Bordeaux, covers around thirty hectares, including 25 in one piece, the wine-growing property of Julien Ferran.

This forty-something started harvesting his plots of white, with a smile, even if the year was “complicated”, he concedes.

"A little frost, a little mildew (a fungus that attacks the vine), a little hail, it's only a little bit, but in total it has consequences," explains the winemaker.

I produce 400 hectoliters normally in white and there, it will be rather half.

“However, nothing to do with 2017 where 70% of his vines had frozen, there will be less volume, but it is a rather promising vintage that promises to be, with good acidity.

Tailor-made harvests

The harvesting machine, rented for the occasion, passed by early this Thursday morning and the grains are now being pressed.

“We start with the Sauvignon blanc and gris and then it will be the turn of the Muscadelle and Sémillon, details Julien Ferran while the juice flows slowly.

We wait until the skins are fully ripe before harvesting and we are also very attentive to the weather.

"

Adapting to the orientation of each plot, to each grape variety, this is the credo of this son of a winegrower who took over the family property in 2008, certified in organic farming since 2000. “This vineyard is old, c t is difficult with the machine so we do it by hand, he explains.

And, for my top-of-the-range wines, I take the same plot to guarantee the same wine and I always harvest it by hand ”.

Another advantage of manual harvesting, when there has been a little mildew, it allows the grapes to be sorted.

"The sought-after expression of the terroir"

The winegrower says that those who come to help him in the cellar are sometimes surprised at the lack of equipment: no yeasts, no boilers. “We are looking for the expression of the terroir”, specifies the one who obtained biodynamic certification in 2010 for what he calls his farm rather than his operation. Delighted with his new life and under the spell of the beauty of his estate, he takes pleasure in working his vines, and in his opinion, this increases his chances of making a good wine. “A baker talks to his dough, I talk to my vats, that's normal,” he blurted out. Copper, sulfur (in regulated quantities) and herbal teas are used to prevent disease and strengthen the immunity of grape plants.

On this farm, there are also about sixty sheep which graze the grass between the rows in winter, and maintain the surroundings of the main plot, bordered by woods.

A couple of patous, who have just had a litter, surround the herd, whose enclosure is located in the middle of the vines.

About fifteen beehives are also scattered on the property.

“We try to have our own ecosystem,” sums up Julien Ferran, appreciating the presence on his estate of birds, hares and grasshoppers, for example.

Very export oriented

When he took over the reins of the property, his parents had only one white and one red, at the entry level. He decides to diversify the vintages in order to be able to better promote his production. Noting that in France he has trouble selling his wines at the prices he wants, he turns to export. Result: today 70% of what it produces is sold abroad, mainly to Germany and the United States.

But far from betting everything on these big markets, it does not abandon any customer however small and exports to Japan, Korea, Thailand, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, England, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Réunion and even Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. “Everywhere nobody wants to go,” he jokes. It is also present in some organic stores in France. Its wines are sold to individuals between 9 and 15 euros.

Attentive to his land and to nature, he also knows how to adapt to market demands in order to seduce his customers.

Its orange wine, a white wine worked like a red wine (the skins ferment with the juice as was done in Antiquity in amphorae), has enjoyed particular success for eight years.

If he had no primary attraction for business, he obviously has the commercial fiber to promote the fruits of the family land.

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