More than two thousand years old, the vineyard is rooted in a stony schist soil and benefits from exceptional atmospheric conditions. Moreover, the rare stormy showers which water this exceptional land, still hand worked, are quickly evacuated by an unique and efficient system. It is only after the fortification, a technique devised in 1285 by Arnau de Vilanova, which stops the fermentation, that the Banyuls wines get their Appellation and their seal of approval.