In the days and weeks before harvesting, we run constant checks on the grapes to ensure they are picked only when they are absolutely ready. Gathered by hand or machine, depending on the variety, the type of wine we want to make, and where they are grown, they are carefully quality controlled beforehand, and as they reach the winery, where they are either pressed immediately or treated by carbonic maceration. We can, thus, select just the right grapes for each wine and vinify them accordingly.

Under the wine section, we explain the vinification process for each wine, but to help you understand some of the terms, here is what some of the techniques mean :

Pigeages : where the ‘hat’ is broken up to give fermenting juice access to residual solid material Remontages : Wine is circulated in the vat by being pumped back into the top of a container to submerge the ‘hat’

Delestages : the draining of a vat, re-homogenisation of the ‘must’ and returned to vat.

Maceration carbonique : whole grapes are allowed to vinify in their skins under a protective layer of carbonic gas. This results in soft, low tannin wines.

Batonnage : breaking up the solid matter that develops in a cask or vat during fermentation