ARMAND HEITZ

Armand’s mother Brigitte leased her vines for twenty-five years to Maison Joseph Drouhin, who farmed the land organically. The expiration of that lease coincided rather fortuitously with the conclusion of Armand’s oenology studies.

Environmental sustainability is the basic principle of Armand’s philosophy. He quickly made the decision to introduce viticulture on the estate based on the principles of agroecology and permaculture, his desire to develop biodiversity that guides the work in the vineyard. Few tractor passages, applying different types of cover crops (mulch, grass cover, sowing, etc.) to encourage soil and plant life by adapting to each plot.

Winemaking style that is as hands-off as possible. Foot treading, limiting inputs as much as possible, and a maximum of a quarter of new barrels.

“In my vineyards, I work to provide as much diversity and autonomy as on my farm. I plant trees, maintain hedges and sow beans, clover, rapeseed, radishes, mustard, alfalfa, rye, sorghum and even hemp. In the winery, the philosophy has been the same since my first vintage. The terroir must express itself with as little intervention and make-up as possible. For the whites, no sulfites, settling after 12 hours, start of AF in vats, then mid-AF, entonnage. With low malic acid levels, no sulfites and summery ambient temperatures, MLF goes quickly. This natural process allows me to take advantage of the winter cold to stabilize the wines tartarically.

For the reds, my preference is a whole bunch of harvest. I have a de-stemmer, but I think I’m going to sell it as I have hardly ever used it. Optical sorters and the like are worth a fortune and make me nauseous. After vatting, the rule is very little punching down, very little pumping over, very little heat, very little cold, I leave the vat to ferment at room temperature. Only the most elegant tannins should be extracted. This approach produces fine, elegant, complex wines with good ageing potential, but above all, they are ultra-authentic.”

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