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Vinification & Ageing
All our grapes are picked by hand and packed into small crates to ensure that the fruit is respected and to avoid the risk of grape oxidisation and crushing.
White wines :
Each grape variety is pressed in whole bunches. Vinification takes place either in stainless steel vats or in barrels.
The grape juice is carefully held at a temperature between 12 and 18°C. The young wines are stirred to disturb the fine lees so that they return to suspension in the wine during the barrel vinification process.
Stirring feeds and thickens the wine, giving it volume and improving the way that it ages. The wines are aged until the following spring, when they are early bottled.
Red wines :
Ripeness determines the order that grape varieties are picked in, which is why different varieties of grape are often vinified separately.
After being fully de-stemmed, the grapes are then gravity-fed into 10,000-litre cement vats where they are immediately cooled. This is to avoid early fermentation in hot years. The yeasts that our grapes contain mean that fermentation begins naturally.
During the fermentation period, each vat is mechanically stirred once or twice daily. The liquid is then pumped over the cap of solids, adding additional oxygen. The stirring process involves ensuring that the cap remains constantly damp in order to promote the extraction of the anthocyanin that creates the wine’s colour and tannins. Heating elements are used to ensure that the wine is kept at a temperature between 25 and 30°.
Wines are left to macerate for 20 to 40 days depending on the character of the particular wine and year.
