Grands Vins de Bordeaux & Vins de France

As previously mentioned, in 2011, Joëlle and Fernand Merlet, founders and creators of the Merlet - Château Tour de Fonbeude Vineyard, passed the torch to their sons, Vincent and Nicolas.

What you didn't know is that Nicolas and Vincent had already embarked on the wine adventure in turn. Nicolas in 2004, and Vincent in 2006. 

Each had his own company and his own hectares of vines, while waiting for their parents to let them take over the estate.

In 2011, they merged their respective companies to form a single entity and created EARL MERLET FRERES.

Thereafter, Joëlle and Fernand leave the reins of the property to them while continuing to come and lend them a hand.

Since 2011, the two brothers are united by the same passion and work in close collaboration, complementing each other perfectly.

In 2013, they wish to expand the winery in view of the number of hectares that the vineyard is now composed of (90 hectares to date). However, the 2013 harvest is very poor due to weather conditions and the project to build the new winery has been postponed for one year.

In 2014, work begins to give birth to the new winery which will welcome its first harvest and vinification in 2015!

Before the construction of the new winery, as you must have guessed, Vincent and Nicolas, educated in the love and passion for wine, vines and terroir, asked themselves all the right questions.

What is the budget? For what purpose? How to be respectful of the environment? How can we offer our vines something to prosper by protecting our land so that they are of the best possible quality? Etc.

And it is by asking all these good economic and environmental questions that a vineyard resulting from sustainable agriculture gets where it is today.

To be respectful of the environment is above all to be a good manager, but above all to be an excellent technician: Nicolas is an expert in this area.

Every year, the vine needs treatments without which it will not produce any fruit. Have you ever heard of powdery mildew and mildew? Most of you must be familiar with the latter: who has never seen their tomato plant ravaged by this fungus? In short, what is explained here is that without the treatments, there are no grapes. And without grapes... we let you guess the rest!

That's when the technical, economic and environmental aspects come into play.

1) Pay attention to the methods of treatment: the periods, the weather conditions, the impact of CO2 (also called "carbon footprint"), the number of times the machines are used, etc.

2) Choose the right phytosanitary products: many of the products used in the Merlet Vineyard are products used in organic agriculture (however we do not use Copper in order not to weigh down our soils and thus risk to considerably reduce all the micro-organisms in charge of the soil's fertility).

3) Reduce and drastically limit the cost of treatments by strictly limiting their use and therefore using a very very very small budget for them. This allows Vincent and Nicolas to preserve the environment and to continue their work as committed winegrowers and (really) reasoned with passion, love and respect for their winegrowing lands.

The quality of their work that respects the environment is also recognized by obtaining the highest level of HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE certification.