Our story
Well, maybe just a little.
Saskia was born and raised in Andalusia, in the province of Málaga, to a Dutch mother and a Spanish father; her grandfather was a wine merchant there.
Maurice was born and raised in southern Alsace, where his grandfather was also a wine merchant, in Altkirch.
In the mid-1990s, Saskia's parents, Els and Ramon, decided to buy an old farmhouse in Occitan Provence. It came with a few hectares of vines producing vin de pays. Perhaps that is what made up their minds.
We know relatively little about the older history of Château de Boucarut and its adjoining chapel, except that the oldest buildings date from 1758 and that it most likely belonged to a clergyman.
Lovers of the arts, of literature and of good wine, Els and Ramon set about restoring Château de Boucarut and its chapel to their former glory, and every year Els hosts concerts in the chapel.
At the same time, Els and Ramon equipped the estate with the essential winemaking tools. For 25 years, they had the vines farmed and the grapes vinified on the estate, selling most of the production to négociants. Their aim was to maintain and preserve the estate's historic winemaking activity.
In 2017, neighbouring vineyard plots that had historically belonged to the Boucarut estate came up for sale. Fate struck, and we decided to change our lives.
Today, Château de Boucarut covers 20 hectares, 15 of them under vine, all gathered around the property. Half of the vineyard is AOC Lirac cru and the other half vin de pays. To this we have now added two plots of AOC Tavel cru in the Vestides terroir, west of the village of Tavel.
With no real knowledge, training or experience, we took the gamble of becoming farmer-winegrowers, carrying out every task on the estate with the help of a small team.
To preserve both the richness of this enlarged estate and our own well-being, we immediately converted all our vines to organic farming.
Growing vines and building a lasting agroecological estate is a long road. We are delighted to work patiently towards it: for ourselves, for those who enjoy our wines, and for those who, we hope, will carry this place forward after us, rooting it firmly in winegrowing and winemaking.
For us (Saskia and Maurice Goetschy), our farming adventures began in 2019.
Before that, we lived and worked in Luxembourg. That is where our law studies, our fondness for foreign languages and our European spirit had taken us. It is also where we met and where our two children, Felix and Alma, were born. We were never meant to become winegrowers.