Our Vineyard and Philosophy

Vineyards

Our first vineyard block – the Hourcat Sud Cabernet Franc vineyard – was purchased in mid-2009 with commercial viticultural management starting in January 2010.

This vineyard comprises two sections The larger 0.45 ha easterly higher section  with +/- 1,000 head of now 30 year old Cabernet Franc vines, which provides the fruit for our unique 100% varietal Cabernet Franc B1ockOne wines. Overlooked by the 12th century church of Saint-Saturnin from the west, it was this piece of land that ignited the mission and passion of the Paradise Rescued project, to protect this beautiful rural part of the village from over-development.

To the western “bottom end” of Hourcat Sud, there is currently a section of mixed vines currently planted with three short rows of Sauvignon Blanc and seven rows of different table grapes. The grapes from these vines are currently made available to the community for their personal use. Part of this block was removed in 2016 to make space for an extension of the Cabernet Franc vineyard. An additional 300 vines were planted in 2021.

The Hourcat Centre block was purchased in September 2011 when it was in a very rundown condition. At the southern end is a section of 55+ year merlot vines – the so called “Old Vine Merlot block”, which was rescued with a lot of loving hand care and attention to form the heart of our BlockTwo wines Merlot CabFranc blends.

The northern larger part of this block, formerly planted in Sémillon vines was past recovery and had to be dug up. It was replanted in close planted Merlot in 2014 together with a few rows of Cabernet Franc behind the winery.

Our vineyard philosophy

At the point of purchase and start of Paradise Rescued management, our vineyards were not in a good
condition. From day one, an organic viticultural strategy has been adopted – no synthetic herbicide pesticide insecticide chemicals have been used. After a period of official conversion, the complete Paradise Rescued vineyard  was certified organic by ECOCert in 2016. Through a programme of annual auditing, we have maintained that standard ever since.

Our organic philosophy is based on two reasons. Firstly, given our sustainability commitment to our community families and neighbours who live close to the vineyards, the use of synthetic chemicals is not acceptable. Secondly, we have sought to regain the health of the soil, provide a more balanced ecosytem and fully healthy organic vineyard as this is reflected in our wines.

As far as practical as possible, our vineyard operations are carried out by hand, minimising the impacts of heavy mechanical equipment on the land and bringing the maximum personal care and attention possible to each vine.

The future for our soil 

Our philosophy to produce excellent hand crafted fine wines begins in the vineyard. Our simple approach:-

Great wines are made from excellent fruit produced on healthy vines growing in active living healthy soil. As our organic viticulture journey has evolved from the start, the emphasis has continued to focus on the vineyard but more and more on the soil.

The attention to detail required in great winemaking will always remain a key skill and knowledge for our our winery team. Increasing effort is now being given to looking at our soil management practices as our 2030 Vision puts the emphasis on Regenerative Organic Viticulture to increase the biodiversity in our vineyards and the increase the potential of our soil to sequester greater carbon and provide an even healthier ecosystem.