Vinocap show in Cap d’Agde: from the vines to Château Laurens

The Belle Isle park, on which the castle was built, housed a vineyard. FREE MIDI – MICHEL DESNOS

The 15th edition of the most important wine tourism fair in the south of France will take place from Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 May, on the quays of the Centre-Port du Cap, where more than a hundred ;exhibitors are expected. Until then, Midi Libre invites you to meet several of its actors. Today, we dive back into the past of Château Laurens, in Agde.

Since it opened its doors to the public a little less than a year ago, Château Laurens, in Agde, continues to seduce visitors. visitors. Here they encounter the imagination of Emmanuel Laurens, a rich heir keen on orientalism, who built this residence at the very end of the 19th century.

Around ten hectares of vineyard

What connection with Vinocap, you will ask me ? We are coming there. A specialist at Château Laurens, Laurent Félix, head of the Heritage department at the Hérault-Mediterranean agglomeration, recalls that in the 19th century, "all areas moved from mixed farming to viticulture& quot;. Château Laurens was no exception once its construction was completed at the beginning of the 20th century and on this property of around twelve hectares, around ten had to be devoted to the cultivation of the vine". Which ensured significant financial income, our man was a millionaire, and also participated in the maintenance of this vast property.

The vine, then cotton and fruit trees

Few archives have reached us of the wine-growing past of Château Laurens. But at a time when the cooperative cellar did not yet exist – it was founded in 1936 –, we can think that the production of the estate was consumed on site – there were many parties within the grounds of Château Laurens – or sold in a nearby area.

Viticulture continued until the Second World War on Belle Isle. "Subsequently, we planted cotton, as in Maraval, elsewhere", underlines Laurent Félix. Closer to us, it was the cultivation of fruit trees that allowed the estate to survive, before a long period of abandonment, to which immense restoration work fortunately put an end.