Domaine de la Bruge
You will find here the description of our family business.
Our history
The family business started in the 1920s with great grandfather Louis. He started to restore the buildings and develop the farm located at a place known as Cabusset near the “dent du Rez” in Saint Remèze.
Some years later, grandfather René took up the torch. He developed viticulture and lavender culture. He was soon joined by his son Dominique. Together they planted most of the land: vines and lavender are still cultivated nowadays.
With the help of his wife Marie-Pierre, after pruning and harvesting, Dominique restored old buildings which belonged to the family and turned them into self catering houses and started to develop farm tourism.
After working as a nature guide in the Ardèche gorges national nature reserve, Mathieu, Dominique’s eldest son, joined the family business in 2015. His main motivation was to diversify the farm activities. So he started planting olive trees in 2020 and the first olive oil appeared in Cabusset. At the same time Dominique and Mathieu renovated the main building and created a Bed & Breakfast offering. Guests are welcomed on the family land renamed “Domaine de la Bruge” in honour of neighbouring land. In addition to his work on the farm Mathieu is also a mid mountain guide and a mountain bike (MTB) instructor. He is passionate about nature and there is nothing he doesn’t know about the Ardeche gorges. Test him, he is always delighted to share his passion and his knowledge with the guests.
Quentin, the younger brother, is a qualified oenologist and developed his skills in different wine producing regions of France and abroad. Quentin had always wanted to return to his roots so he joined Mathieu in 2021. Together they completed the conversion of the farm to organic agriculture (vines, olive, lavender). In 2022 the “Domaine de la Bruge” took on a new dimension: with full respect for nature the first bottles were produced bearing the names of natural features of our land. Our olive oil has been judged top quality rewarding our efforts. New grape varieties are being introduced and new ideas are flowing for the coming years (biodynamic vineyard, natural wine, olive plantation….)
Our production
Our wines
We have 22 hectares of vines and more than 10 different grape varieties. We vinify 5 hectares of our handpicked grapes. The rest of our grapes are either brought to the village cooperative or sold. Few agricultural inputs are used so that our terroir remains genuine and can imprint its identity.
Our essential lavender
Lavender is an historic crop on the plateau des Gras. We have 10 hectares of lavender which is distilled to produce essential oil.
Our olive oil
We started growing olives in 2015. Nowadays we have about a 3 hectare grove and more than 15 different varieties. After a manual harvest our olives are brought to a mill to be cold pressed.
Our philosophy
Our philosophy is to propose terroir wines where grapes can truly reflect the vineyard in which they are grown.
We only grow organic vines.The soil is mechanically worked and we hope to develop a biodynamic approach in the coming years.We are committed to respecting nature and promoting biodiversity in our plots
We harvest our grapes by hand and it enables us to select fruit and to handle them with care to get the best out of the grapes. It takes good grapes to make a good wine even for the best winemaker!
In the cellar we work in order to bring out the best quality of the grapes We try and intervene as little as possible (no wine fining, no filtration, and no containers that could spoil the quality of the wine). Our wines are fermented thanks to yeasts naturally occurring in our plots or in the winery. Since 2022 our wines have been vinified without agricultural inputs and no sulphite added.
Because “good wine gladdens a man’s heart” we will do everything we can so that your hearts gladden after tasting one of our wines!
Come to discover and taste our product in our “caveau”
From Monday to Saturday 10h-19h
If we are absent feel free to call us we are always in the area!
11 rue Saint André
07700 Saint Remèze
