The Domaine du Closel joined a program of " Lutte raisonnée et production intégrée " : strategic combat and integrated production.

Clément Baraut explains : " It is a mean of sanitary protection of the vineyard, which allows a control over the vine and a fight against parasites by observation. A noxiousness threshold of malady is acceptable, the vine is treated only if this threshold is exceeded ".

Integrated production means taking into account the natural factors (climate, soil, rock) and the cultural know-how (vine variety, pruning etc) of a certain area in order to reach the best possible quality and typicity for the wine and to be able to very precisely identify its origin.

As soon as the harvest is over , the staff starts putting the vineyard back into shape : the stakes and the training strands are checked, the sick rootstocks are pulled out in order to replace them in the spring. As soon as the leaves have fallen , the pruning starts.

Here we use the double Guyot pruning technique, in the shape of a Y : two shoots with four buds and a recall of two buds. The shoots are tied. Then the soil is treated with lime (to counteract its often excessive acidity) and manured, according to a plan ,and only when necessary.

In spring, the pulled out stocks are being replaced with new ones or complants. Whenever possible, we save the deep root system of a vine by cutting back to the rootstock except for one selected shoot above the graft point (this technique is called recépage).

We also prune the useless shoots (disbudding or ébourgeonnage) which allows airflow to the vine stocks and eases the blossoming which takes place in June. In July we count the small bunches and we cut off those which are not properly placed or too numerous. We raise the training strands in order to hold the young growths and, twice during the summer, we trim (épointer) in order to keep a foliage height equal to the width of the inter-row multiplied by 0.7 .

From August 15 to September 15, nature works by itself, however highly supervised : each week, grapes are picked in each parcel in order to determine sugar and acidity evolution , which will enable us, in conjunction with INAO ( Institut National des Appellations d'Origine Contrôlées), to decide the commencement day of the harvest.

Experts from an independant body ( Bureau Veritas) control annually the respect of the Terra Vitis chart in every winery. Any use of chemicals must be justified and written in the winery book. Controls can be on fertilisers, soil care, grass growing practises, diseases and pests prevention and grape quality.

Founded in 1998, the federal association Terra Vitis promotes an organic viticulture.