Our environmental commitment
A great terroir can’t express itself without the appropriate work.
The restructuring of Château Haut Peyrat, in 2014, by Isabelle and Didier Gil, was a real qualitative and ecological turn. This special organization of the property on 40ha including 20 hectares of vineyards but also wood, meadows and poplar grows, induces an obvious will to preserve this unique biodiversity.
Since 2017, the domain has reached the highest level of “High Environmental Value” certification.
Strong and rigorous choices in the vineyard management have been made, such as doing the “travaux en vert” only manually (pruning, leaf removal…) or the cessation of all chemical weed control.
In the meadows and forests, sheep, horses and beehives participate in the collective life of the property.
Haut Peyrat is equipped with a biomass boiler running on vine shoots, allowing it to be self-sufficient for its heating. The energy produced allows to heat the whole building but also to thermoregulate the cellar during the winemaking process.
The Château also has a system that recovers all the rainwater from the 1,800 m² of roofing. The water is stored in a basin and then used to water the park, to fill the sprayer for the vines or to clean the equipment.
An autonomous effluents treatment facility has also been installed and discharges clean water into the environment.
High Environmental Value
The biodiversity
At the Château Haut Peyrat we do not use any herbicide. By reducing the exposure of insects to chemicals, while allowing more flowers to develop, bee populations are encouraged to thrive and become established.
The presence of the beehives helps the pollination of wildflowers and those of our orchard. Therefore we contribute to the biodiversity of our ecosystem. As a bonus, we get delicious honey!
We find a really diverse wild animal population on the property: deers, boars, hares, rabbits, bats, birds, night raptors... The estate, organized in one single bloc, allow animals to freely move inside this treasure of 40 hectares.
Sheep in our vineyards
The beautiful sheeps participate in the ecosystem of the property. During the winter they help us by grazing the grass under the vines. This prevent the soil from being compacted by the tractor’s wheels. This choice helps the development of the roots which will draw all the elements necessary for the production of our great wines. We would be delighted to show you those little ones when you will visit de property.
The vine branches boiler
The use of vine shoots to heat the property makes it possible to avoid the use of fossil fuels. Indeed, one hectare of vineyard produces two tons of vine shoots, which is the equivalent of 1,000 liters of fuel oil.
As a consequence the property has chosen to equip itself with a state of the art vine shoot boiler. This way, instead of burning the vine shoots at the end of the rows, they are crushed, dried and stored to be burned for to heat of the whole property. This boiler also allows the production of hot water necessary for the thermoregulation of our wine tanks during the winemaking process.
