Domaine Treloar
Vigneron independant
Our
terroir
Great wine is made in the vineyard. At least 50% of our work takes place before harvest.
We only grow traditional grape varieties of the region and none of the vineyards are irrigated. We believe great wines, anywhere in the world, come from dry vineyards.
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We have vineyards located on stony terraces between Trouillas and Terrats and also on a unique limestone hillside called Le Roubau..
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The grape varieties are planted on the terroir to which they are most suited. The vines range in age from 20 to 70 years old.
Our vineyards
Syrah
2 ha on typical Aspres stony-clay soils
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Lledoner Pelut (a rare local relative of Grenache noir)
0.45 ha on steep limestone slopes
Grenache noir
1.2 ha of old vines on a south-facing limestone slope & 0.5 ha on stony clay.
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Mourvedre (also known as Mataro and Monastrell)
1.4 ha on a clay-limestone slope facing the sea
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Grenache Gris, Carignan blanc and Carignan noir
0.25 ha of old bush vines planted in the 1950s
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Grenache gris & Macabeu
0.2 ha of old, low-yielding bush vines on stony clay
our harvest
is 100%
hand picked
All our grapes are picked by hand and collected in small boxes for transporting back to the winery.
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This has the advantage over machine harvesting because the pickers can select out the unripe, the damaged, or the mouldy bunches.
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Hand-picking also ensures that we only pick bunches of grapes. Not leaves, twigs, insects and snails.
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Thirdly the grapes are not broken while in the vineyard and the juice is protected from oxidation. Meaning we don't need to add sulfites before fermentation.
we practice Regenerative Viticulture
Maintaining a living soil and a balanced ecology is very important to us. This involves avoiding fertilisers and herbicides, mulching prunings and cover crops into the soil and shallow ploughing only at certain times of the year to avoid erosion.
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Biodiversity is evident in our vineyards with hedgerows and wild fruit trees. The rows between the vines grow a variety of wild flowers which aid rain-penetration, microbial life and soil-porosity.
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In winter, we hand-prune each vine to balance the yield and maintain health. In summer we trim the shoots where needed, again by hand.
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The Roussillon has a great climate for viticulture as most of the rain falls in the winter and in summer there is always the Tramontane wind to dry out the vines after a downpour.
Winemaking
PHilosophy
We believe that great wine is primarily created in the vineyard and requires only gentle encouragement in the winery to transform the grapes. The wines are naturally but meticulously made.
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We only use low levels of sulphites at the end of fermentation and avoid adding winemaking products like acids, sugar, enzymes, fining agents or oak chips. Inert gases are used to protect the wines from oxidation or bacterial spoilage. ​
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​The wines are filtered only at bottling. We use ecological lightweight bottles and DIAM corks, which prevent cork taint, from locally produced cork.
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No animal products are used. All the wines are suitable for vegetarians & vegans.