Hall B3 - n°1276
GUILHEM (château)
FranceLanguedoc-RoussillonLanguedoc AOPThe Cathar Country IGPMalepère AOPPays d'Oc IGP
Information
- Description
- Based in Malviès in Aude, the Château Guilhem wine estate has for many years focused its activity on its environmental impact. Indeed, aware of current climate issues, Bertrand Gourdou, an independent wine grower, faces, like all farmers, climatic hazards, a direct consequence of human activities. In order to limit the ecological footprint of its production as much as possible, the winegrower relies on 100% eco-responsible and local packaging with materials sourced from companies based within a 100 km radius around the Château.
A winemaker who takes his environmental approach even further thanks to 100% eco-responsible packaging
Already established in organic farming since 2007 and committed to an eco-responsible approach, Bertrand Gourdou is now going further to reduce its ecological impact.
Thus, from the cork to the grape, six entirely eco-responsible vintages (two red wines, two whites, a rosé and a natural orange wine) have just been developed. To develop this 100% local packaging designed with entirely recycled and recyclable materials, Château Guilhem collaborates with companies located within a 100 km radius around the castle.
The cardboard is based on 100% French and recycled paper printed with inks without chemical solvents (washable), processed in Lézignan-Corbières (47 km). This cardboard has a self-closing bottom allowing you to use only one side to close with Eco-V tape, made of natural rubber eliminating the presence of plastic. A saving of 42 km of tape was thus achieved! The labels come from a printing company based in Montreal d'Aude (15km) which uses entirely recycled and French papers from eco-responsible forests, with biodegradable vegetable glues and without any gilding or other non-biodegradable elements, including the size has been optimized to reduce paper waste. The corks are made of natural cork also coming from eco-managed forests and are made in Portet-sur-Garonne (98km), they will carry the vintage of each wine on their edge in order to be visible to the consumer and no longer on the label in order to reuse the labels the following year (reduction of waste). The latter are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified for responsible forest management.
The bottles were the subject of particular attention since they are produced at the De BEZIERS glassworks (98 km) and were chosen for their low weight of 425g compared to 650g for the old bottles used by Bertrand Gourdou. This reduction in weight improves the carbon footprint of their shipping and manufacturing. Concretely, reducing the weight of the bottle REDUCES the weight of a transport pallet by 135 kg! A more than significant reduction in CO2 emissions accompanied at the same time by greater comfort for the handling teams. The pallets are no longer packaged with plastic film, but with biodegradable film. The bottles are made from recycled glass and are themselves fully recyclable. They are labeled Lean + Green.
As for the overcapping capsule, it has simply been removed in order to avoid producing additional plastic or metal waste. A saving of 75 kg of aluminum was made! The cork is thus exposed, which allows the vintage to be recorded and avoids putting it on the label. Consequently, the remaining labels can be used again the following year.
This is the first time that a winemaker has offered such an accomplished approach: a 100% local and eco-responsible range while guaranteeing the traceability of the wine on all the components of the products. Packaging, grapes... here, the wine comes 100% from the estate (independent winemaker), no blend of wines which need to be transported to be packaged and which therefore weigh heavily on the environmental impact of production. Whether it is the bottle, the logistics (box, pallets) or the grapes (harvested and vinified on site), Château Guilhem vintages are eco-responsible from A to Z. A first in France. From idea to implementation, including the search for suppliers, it took Bertrand Gourdou an entire year to bring his project to fruition.
Finally, it is possible for customers to return their Château Guilhem bottles to Anne-Sophie Gourdou, the winemaker's wife, who is responsible for upcycling them into water glasses or cocktail glasses.
“Like all farmers, we have been facing increasingly frequent and increasingly violent weather conditions for several years. Even if we are already in organic farming with particular attention paid to biodiversity in our vines, we wanted to take our approach even further. Initiatives of this type are undertaken by some of my colleagues but never from the grape to the bottle. This is why we have done a lot of work on the packaging to offer a product that is as eco-responsible as possible and in a short circuit,” underlines Bertrand Gourdou, owner of the Château Guilhem estate.
This new packaging is also an opportunity for the estate to modernize the labels and offer a more current bottle design. The first bottlings will take place in December, prices will be between €12 and €19 including tax.
1. FSC Certificate is an international organization which aims to encourage responsible forest management on a social, ecological and economic level. It is the leader in forest certification systems that fights against deforestation.
2. Lean + green Certificate means that the bottles significantly reduce the ecological footprint thanks to their design, which by reducing the weight of the bottles, also reduces energy consumption during their manufacturing and transport.
Château Guilhem: an eco-responsible approach already well established.
Established in organic farming since 2007, Bertrand Gourdou replaces pesticides, herbicides and fungicides with the use of natural sulfur, limits natural copper inputs and uses plants and essential oils for the treatment of its vines.
The preservation of biodiversity is also placed at the center of the Château's concerns since several initiatives are an integral part of the cultivation of its vines:
• Natural grassy rows have been set up to preserve endemic plant species to protect and promote soil biodiversity, which also prevents erosion during heavy rains.
• Campaigns to replant hedges between plots of vines, with species present in the neighboring massif, are regularly undertaken. They allow flora and fauna to settle thanks to natural shelters and nesting boxes, they also represent a significant advantage for the cultivation of vines since they protect them from the wind.
• The vineyard is also ideally located near the Malepère massif, a NATURA 2,000 classified area, with more than 6,000 protected hectares which includes 12 endemic species of bats. These are natural predators of flying insects including the golden leafhopper, responsible for the flavescence ore disease which kills vine stumps. In order to contribute to the establishment and preservation of the species, Château Guilhem has installed nest boxes to allow bats to live in the vines.
Finally, no inputs of animal origin such as fish glue or pork gelatin are used. Instead, the estate chose potato protein for fining its wines. Thus, the winemaking is subject to vegan certification.
For the 2024 Vintage, Bertrand has been able to reinvent itself to always offer new products and will offer wines in a trend of discovery:
- A Blanc de Noirs, white wine made from grape varieties with black skin and white pulp, such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot. It presents flavors of vine peaches and violets, an aromatic and gourmet wine
- A Blouge at 11%/Alc. No added sulphites, a half red, half white wine, made from Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. It presents an aroma of white flowers and raspberry, for a light tasting with red fruits.
- A red wine without added sulphites in spontaneous vinification, for delicious tasting.
- A maceration white wine, with slight oxidation to preserve a nice bouquet of white fruits.
- Appellation
- Languedoc AOP
- Région viticole
- Languedoc-Roussillon
- Country
- France
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Production mode
- Year of certification
- 2024
- Quality approach
- B corp;Committed csr;Vin Méthode Nature
- Packaging
- Bag in Box BIBBottle suitable for reuseGlass bottle
- Product type
- Other organic alcoholic beveragesSweet and liqueur wineSparkling wineStill wine
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Distribution networks
- Current customer(s) type
- Café / Hotel / RestaurantCavisteCourtier / Agent commercialDétaillantDétaillant BioE-commerce / VPCExportateurGMSGrossisteImportateurSommelier
- Current countries
- France
- Type of target customer(s)
- Cafe / Hotel / RestaurantWine merchantBroker / Commercial agentRetailerOrganic RetailerE-commerce / Mail orderExporterGMSWholesalerImporterSommelier
- Target country(ies)
- South AfricaGermanySaudi ArabiaBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoCambodiaCameroonCape VerdeCosta RicaCroatiaCubaCuracaoDenmarkEl SalvadorSpainFinlandGabonGambiaGhanaGibraltarGrenadeGreenlandGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaEquatorial GuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaFrench GuianaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsHaitiHondurasReunion IslandIraqIranIrelandIcelandIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKyrgyzstanKiribatiLaosLebanonLiberiaLithuaniaMacauMacedoniaMadagascarMalaysiaMalawiMaldivesMaliMaltaMoroccoMartiniqueMauritiusMauritaniaMayotteMoldovaMonacoMontserratMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNicaraguaNigeriaNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNepalOmanUgandaPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayThe NetherlandsPitcairnFrench PolynesiaPortugalQatarUnited KingdomRwandaCentral African RepublicDominican RepublicDemocratic Republic of CongoDemocratic People's Republic of KoreaSaint-BarthélemySaint Kitts and NevisSaint-Martin (French part)Saint-Martin (Dutch part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonHoly See (Vatican City State)Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesSaint Helena Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint LuciaSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSomaliaSudanSouth SudanSri LankaSurinameSvalbard and Jan Mayen IslandSwazilandSenegalTajikistanTanzaniaTaiwanChadFrench Southern LandsBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryThailandTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTurkmenistanTuvaluUkraineVanuatuVietnamVenezuelaWallis and FutunaUnited Arab EmiratesEcuadorState of PalestineFederated States of MicronesiaUNITED STATESHeard Island and McDonald IslandsIsle of ManCayman IslandsFalkland IslandsNorthern Mariana IslandsMarshall IslandsSolomon IslandsTurks and Caicos IslandsBritish Virgin IslandsUnited States Virgin Islands
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Main contact
- First name
- BERTRAND
- Name
- GOURDOU GUILHEM
- Function
- Directeur général / Directrice générale
