LANYE-BARRAC VitiFarm

Located between the Orb valley and the Faugérois, at the foot of the Montagne Noire and in the heart of the Parc Naturel du Haut Languedoc, our LANYE-BARRAC VitiFarm® wine farm is run on a mixed farming and breeding basis.
It covers 25 hectares in one piece, 16.5 of which are planted with vines on schist slopes ideally facing South and South-West and 8.5 hectares planted with holm oak forests, fruit trees and moors where the garrigue flourishes.
The oldest vines are more than 100 years old and the youngest are more than 10 years old. Our vines, pruned in goblet shape, are cultivated in a natural way, in organic and biodynamic agriculture, without weed killers, chemical fertilizers or synthetic products. Galloway cows, Merino sheep, donkeys from Provence and Camargue horses graze, pre-cut and fertilize our plots. Our practice of agroecology favors the development of a great biodiversity of fauna and flora.

Our story

The human impact on our farm must be both effective and humble. Our daily challenge is to let nature express itself while controlling it without destroying it.
We try to adapt our vineyard to the animals and our animals to the vineyard: the flora serving the fauna, the fauna serving the flora! Sometimes we give a helping hand to the development of biodiversity; planting of hedges, fruit trees and creation of 2 ponds are the result of a collaboration with the Conservatoire des Espaces Naturels de l'Hérault.

Without a family tradition of winegrowing, Melanie, an osteopath in Corsica, and Bernhard, a sommelier in Australia, nothing predestined us to make our life project a reality: that of living and working with passion in nature and with nature, and with the vine and wine as a framework.

Originally from Corsica, Mélanie and Bernhard Backhaus grew up in a small village in the heart of the Patrimonio appellation, with the maquis and the vineyards as their playground.

Their parents, who were very close to nature, a father who was a gardener (farmer-breeder-shepherd-herbalist-artist) and pioneer of biodynamic farming, and a mother who was an artist on Bernhard's side and an osteopath on Melanie's side, instilled in them a respect for nature and the need to preserve it from a very young age.
When in 2013 Mélanie and Bernhard decided to create the VitiFarm®, their wine farm, in the commune of Saint-Nazaire-de-Ladarez in the Hérault region, their choice was first of all for a 10 hectare estate in a single block on the site known as Barrac, which was completed in 2015 with 15 hectares of vines and adjoining land on the site known as La Rabidote, for which they fell in love.