Le domaine des bardes

About Winery and Wines

This is, above all, a mixed family farm. Emmanuel Tracol, manager of Domaine des Bardes, abandoned the fruit and cows to keep only the vines and field crops. It was important to him that this farm, which his great-grandfather had, remain and continue to be worked in the family.

This farm has always been a mixed crop and livestock farm.

Emmanuel Tracol's great-grandfather was very ambitious and had considerably expanded the farm for its time. He had purchased numerous plots of land and built sheds and barns, making this farm the largest in the village of Eclassan. His grandfather and father took over.

The latter built more sheds, but most importantly, a barn for his dairy cows. To keep up with technological developments in the 1990s, it was necessary to grow to survive. A large portion of the vines were already established on 4.26 hectares.

The grapes were sold to the Sarras-Saint-Désirat cooperative winery. There were also apricots, pears, cherries, and raspberries, which were sold to the Sarras fruit cooperative. However, these lands were managed conventionally, and my beliefs prevented me from continuing in this way.

That's why, as soon as I moved in in 2019, Emmanuel Tracol decided to convert the family farm to organic farming, as well as biodynamic methods for the vines. Several trials are being conducted (green manure, grass cover, mulching, mouse-ear hawkweed, subterranean clover, etc.).

Emmanuel Tracol began practicing a bit of biodynamic farming in 2019 and 2020, but only by respecting the work dates according to the biodynamic calendar. Since November 2020, he has been practicing fully biodynamic farming.

With the goal of implementing agroforestry, which aims to plant trees in the vineyards, Emmanuel Tracol is committed to planting hedgerows around the vines. This will help create biodiversity in the vineyards, both for plants and wildlife. Replacements will be made with mass-selected grafts, further enhancing biodiversity.

Similarly, for dead plants whose rootstock is still alive, Emmanuel Tracol grafts new cleft grafts onto the old rootstock, thus preserving the entire root system that has grown deep over the years. The new plantations are on two plots, each containing four different grape varieties (two white and two red).

A regenerative hydrology project is currently underway. This project, set up at the end of 2025, consists of restoring the water cycle that is currently lost, promoting the infiltration of rainwater into our soils, avoiding flooding, avoiding erosion and therefore the loss of our soils, naturally irrigating our plots allowing us to withstand major droughts longer, and finally creating biodiversity given that hedges will be planted, it is a vast action plan.

Passionate about his work, Emmanuel Tracol works with an energy healer to help him harmonize his vines, his wine, and himself to create a true symbiosis. This family estate currently owns 7.26 hectares of vines, distributed as follows:

2.83 hectares of Syrah (PGI Collines Rhodaniennes);
0.63 hectares of Syrah (AOP Saint-Joseph);
0.8 hectares of Viognier;
0.9 hectares of Dureza;
0.9 hectares of Marsanne;
0.6 hectares of Chatus;
0.6 hectares of Roussanne;
The remainder, just under 27 hectares, consists of permanent meadows and field crops, which Emmanuel Tracol has retained.

You will find wines in four colors: white, orange, rosé and red.
 

For white wines we will have Viognier aged in oak barrels and Marsanne aged in stoneware amphorae.

Orange wine is a maceration in a terracotta amphora of a white Roussanne grape variety.

The rosé wine is a Syrah rosé.

And finally for the red wines, we have 3 grape varieties, Chatus which is an old forgotten grape variety that came back in the 90s, Dureza which is also an old North Ardèche grape variety that came back in the 2010s and which is the father or mother of Syrah, the other parent being the Mobdeuse blanche de Savoie. And finally the Syrah which comes in 4 vintages, the first being in IGP des Collines Rhodaniennes, the second in AOP Saint-Joseph and the third in IGP des Collines Rhodaniennes and old vines in Massâmes selection dating from the 70s, and finally a vine that I have not pruned since 2021 which gives an atypical wine.