Biodynamics allows us to go ever further in the living construction of our Clos. We strive every day to bring into being and take care of the different element-organs that make up our domain, a balanced and unifying whole.
 
Spring 2021: we are starting agroforestry at Clos Troteligotte. For us, it is a question of reintroducing the tree, the fruit tree, the shrub and the plant (aromatic and useful for biodynamics) within our own vine plots. We start with hedges, around and between the plots, as well as at the junction of the surrounding forest and the vineyard, in the form of a pergola.

Two years later, we plant one hectare of vines entirely in agroforestry and pergola, in other words the tree and the vine are planted at the same time and grow together. At first, the vine will grow in poles. Then it will wrap itself around the tree and its branches, when the latter has grown well. The trees will be partly pruned, and the tillage will be done on horseback.

For us, the vines have always been surrounded by woods and trees. But it was missing inside the vineyard itself. Take the example of the bat which is a predator of the butterfly at the origin of the grape worm, a pest of the vine. The bat needs “ecotones” (ecological transition zone between two ecosystems, between two woods for example) to settle. The trees in the vineyard act as an ecotone. The bat can thus nest in the hedges or trees that it finds in its path, and then come and eat the butterflies, or the leafhopper, another devastating insect for the vine. As a stopover point, the tree is thus a real refuge for the predators of vine pests. 

Eventually, we will have planted at Clos Troteligotte about 3000 trees over several kilometres. Service trees, service trees, maples, hawthorns, hornbeams, hazelnuts, pistachio trees, pear trees, fig trees… With a large body of water available for flora and fauna on the outskirts of these plantations. All these elements – as well as our woods, our meadows, the wilder areas, the flower plantations, the micro-forests, our wells, our barns – are so many stones that serve to build our edifice of nature and life.

We are supported on this project by Alain Canet and the association Arbres Haies Paysage 46. We thank them warmly.