Domaine La Marseillaise

Pierre Satou and his wife Fabienne introduce themselves and their Domaine La Marseillaise:

My name is Pierre Satou and my wife Fabienne is now the 5th generation on the Marseillaise estate. Her great-great-grandfather bought it in 1870. I also come from a family winery near Carcassonne in Languedoc, which I managed until 1995.

Then we decided to move to Provence to take over the Domaine La Marseillaise from her parents. It is about 15 km from Toulon in the midst of almost untouched nature, because the existing land had been fallow for many years and was no longer cultivated.

Domaine La Marseillaise in Provence, almost on the Mediterranean coast

After the renovation of the buildings, we started planting new vines in 1998. Today (2020) we have 6 hectares of vines and in the next two years we will add another 1.5 hectares with the Floréal and Artaban varieties. Like the grape varieties Merlot, Syrah, Grenache, Marselan, Cinsault, Carignan Ugni-Blanc, Vermentino and Viognier, they are ideally suited for our Provencal climate.

Biodynamic wines from Domaine La Marseillaise

It was only in 2017 that we were able to realize our dream of producing the first biodynamic wine based on Demeter rules in our own wine cellar. Until then, we sold the grapes to the local cooperative and used the money to finance the modern equipment of our wine cellar.

We made the decision to produce biodynamic wines according to the Demeter rules after in-depth studies of the literature, training courses and discussions with colleagues when the vineyards were planted in 2001 and 2002. Domaine La Marseillaise has been organic and Demeter certified since 2005.

The winery is equipped with stainless steel tanks of 30 hl and 50 hl. The harvest yields of 50 hl / hectare on average make it possible to fill around 40,000 bottles of biodynamic wine every year. Of this, 60% is red wine, 25% rosé wine and 15% white wine.

I like fruity, balanced wines with substance, says Pierre, and that's what I'm trying to achieve. Our wines reflect the climatic conditions of the year and the terroir.

I don't add anything to the must or wine during winemaking. The wine is not sulphurised a little until it is lightly filtered. When bottling, the SO2 doses for red wine are around 50 mg / l, for white wine and rosé between 60 and 70 mg / l.

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I take care of the work in the vineyard and in the cellar together with one of my sons. My wife takes over the marketing and sales of the biodynamic wines at the winery.

Incidentally, the name of Domaine La Marseillaise does not go back to the French national anthem, but to the olive variety La Marseillaise, which was cultivated here for many decades after phylloxera destroyed the vines.

If you want to enjoy the biodynamic wines on site, visit Domaine La Marseillaise, where you can also rent a small apartment or studio, relax by the pool, or go to the Mediterranean beach.