This wine comes from a tiny, ten-person team winery with a 50-year history. The head of the family business, Philippe Carretero (an engineer-enologist), has led this team for about 30 of the 50 years Chateau Sicot has existed. Compared to many of the wineries around the world and even in Bordeaux, this Château is small. It may be because of their size that they’ve managed to successfully (& quickly) commit and convert their vineyards over to organic farming, achieving ECOCERT certification in 2009.
The process of achieving an organic certification is time-consuming and expensive, but the benefits far outweigh the costs. They’ve seen the life of their soils strengthen, preventing erosion & the deterioration of microorganisms vital to keeping the ground healthy. Their vines have become healthier and more resistant to disease as well, all resulting in better fruit, which yields better wine!
The Château Sicot vineyard extends over a high clay-siliceous plateau. The subsoil is clay with traces of iron filth, where in places, we find beds of clayey sand or gravel. After years of intensive cultivation, soil preservation has become an issue for farmers, and organic and sustainable agriculture has helped a lot with soil quality on the estate thus far.
