About Ferme L’Apogée
We are a micro-farm nestled on a hillside in the heart of the bastilles of the Dordogne. We rely on permaculture, practice no till gardening and use open-pollinated seed, as well as heritage varieties to produce a range of seasonal and sometimes unusual fruit veg and herbs !
We are also natural winemakers and recently, begun experimenting with wild ferment beers and vinegars.
Working with the rhythms of nature and with an eye to biodynamics, the word apogee comes from the moon’s orbit when it’s furthest away from earth. It also means to reach a peak.
Permaculture Farm & Organic Garden
Permaculture is a fantastic set of principles and tools for living resiliently and sustainably on our farm. With a focus on sensible design and management of the land and resources, permaculture stems from the words ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’.
Being on a hillside we practice no dig gardening as well as water management techniques such as hugelculture and swales, we also integrate traditional market gardening techniques. We raise 95% of our seedling and plants in the nursery, truly growing with the seasonal without any artificial heating.
Our aim to also bring back diversity our small hillside, we have planted over 200 trees, hedgerows, as well as the beginnings of a forrest garden.
Natural Winemaking
Our definition of natural wine is- fermented grapes (nothing more or less). We work with local growers, organic grapes to spontaneously ferment juice into wine, without any additions.
Our winery is low tech and demechanised, using just a handmade destemmer, press and pump to make wine. We do not add any intrants, fine or filter or temperature control our wines. All our wines are aged 10-12 months minimum in sandstone and terracotta amphoras. We bottle, create our art and label all by hand.
