Description
About Domaine du Roc des Anges
It is the beginning of the adventure, on a nice winter day of 2001. The couple just got married. While determined to settle down in Montner (or Mont Noir ), not far from her husband’s workplace, Marjorie starts a revealing training experience in a renowned estate of Calce, an experience that will open the doors to biodynamics and Mediterranean farming practices that are designed to be in harmony with the different forms and forces of nature. A whole new world of grape varieties with unsuspected characteristics, such as carignan, grenache or macabeu, opens up to her.
Soon after, Marjorie paves the way for what will become in 10 years time one of the flagship estates of Southern France. Determined and persevering by nature, she manages three plots alone, among which a little gem of venerable carignan vines – Lo Roc Blanc -, a magical place of only one hectare made up of a vein of white quartz surrounded by a sea of black schists. Right away, explains Marjorie, we thought of Le Roc Blanc (“The White Roc”) for the estate’s name, but that name was already taken. So we decided to name it Le Roc des Anges (“The Angels’ Rock”).
This Roc Blanc, renamed Roc des Anges, will be the symbol of an estate that today encompasses approximately 30 ha divided into 50 different plots. It will also be the symbol of a lifetime commitment because in the meantime, Stéphane came back to work full-time at the estate to build the common dream of the Gallets.Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet are not fans of radical farming practices. Over the last ten years, the vineyards have progressively gone from “reasoned” to organic farming. Since the beginning of 2011, both estates are farmed biodynamically.
We contracted the services of Jacques Mell, a consultant based in Champagne, says Stéphane Gallet. He helps us to go one step further, to broaden our perspective, and to have a more subtle approach of the soil and the vines .
Marjorie adds: Over the years we have come to understand the influence of cosmic and terrestrial forces on living things, the need for self-sustained and natural soils, to produce stronger and higher quality grapes, in order to yield wines that are livelier, more vibrant… .
With such diversity in the vineyard, it is logical that the field work be planned according to each plot’s identity. It is also important to consider the age of the vines: gentle soil ploughing, as to not wound the old vine plants.
This is generally performed two to three times a year, once in winter and twice in spring, with the help of a small crawler tractor or a horse, although there is no strict protocol and we even experiment not ploughing the soils on the hardest schists, allowing the grass to grow freely before mowing with a weed-eater .
