Domaine Arsac

Domaine Arsac was founded by the current owners Sébastien and Dimitri Arsac’s grandparents Therese and Gaston Arsac after Gaston was freed in 1945-1946 from being a prisoner in Austria and Germany in WWII. Upon returning to Ardèche, the farm was filled with a lot of different animals, cultures, fruit trees, and vines. At the time, farms made their own wines to drink during the year without selling, but Gaston decided to plant vines to make and sell his wine in 1946. Since then, Sébastien and Dimitri’s uncle and father followed Gaston’s path, and in 2008 Sébastien and Dimitri decided to make the Domaine totally organic, biodynamic, and natural. They keep the cows on the estate to make compost for the vineyard and provide food. Sébastien says that he is simply a witness and a messenger to the next generation, and he wants to leave it to the next generation like his father and grandfather left it to him. 

The soil there is one part volcanic (basaltic stone) and one part clay limestone, and the average altitude is 400 to 650m. All the harvests are done by hand, including selection on the vineyard and in the winery. They work with concrete tanks, inox, oak barrels, and Amphora. Their wine is produced only with indigenous yeast to keep the identity of the terroir. They produce a lot of different red, white, rosé, and orange wines, looking to make them with low alcohol, zero sugar residual, and minimal sulfites.