- In my capacity as a winemaker I often get asked to attend a lunch or a seminar by our suppliers however in December last year I was asked by an oak company if I would like to visit their cooperage........here are my notes from what turned out to be a truely amazing, and insightful trip to France. Thank you Tonnelerie Sylvain for your generosity.
Tonnellerie Sylvain.
From log processing to barrel manufacturing.
Followed the process through milling of the logs, selection of the grain, stacking and seasoning.
No irrigation in the stave yard, trials have proved it un-necessary.
Toasting done by experienced coopers – no thermometers or fancy electronic eyes. Very traditional.
Sylvain are one of only 6 cooperages that buy plots and cut their own logs. Demptos, Seguin Moreau, Nadalie, Francois Frere, Taransaud. (apparently) all other tonnelerie purchase staves from stave mills such as Charlois (Ermitage,Saury group)
80% of a French oak tree is waste, used for firewood, furniture and floorboards.
On the best trees the cooperage will often sell the first 2 meters of the tree to furniture veneer cutters where they will cut 800-2000 veneer sheets from it for furniture manufacture. (1 – 2 mm thick)
The top third of the tree is often knotty and will be sold to floor board manufacturers.
On average , for a 30 mtr tall tree, the cooperage will use 8 – 12 metres for stave production only and produce 15 – 20 barrels per tree.
Once the logs arrive at the cooperage they are stacked in lots and irrigated to keep the bugs away. Log storage for 12 months + is not considered part of the ageing process.
Air seasoning using traditional stacking method on untreated PINE pallets. This surprised me. Minimum air seasoning at Sylvain is 24 months.
All Sylvain barrels are made on grain selection rather than forest origin.
All Sylvain barrels are a blended barrel.
I left the cooperage with a sense that Sylvain had all the bases covered, from sourcing the best logs, high level of control in their stave yard, a good balance of high tech and tradition during the barrel making process, and a view to protecting their quality at every stage of production with a high level QA.
Jean-Luc Sylvain has been elected as the next president of the oak industry body that works with the French forestry department.
We were all very impressed with the cooperage and with Jean-Luc’s passion for his industry and his company.
Ch.Angelus – Premier Grand Cru Classe B –
St Emillion
Production about 7500 doz of the 1er Classified wine.
50% Merlot , 47% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon
Crop thinning in most years, leaf plucking every year.
Hand picked and carried to the winery by the pickers.
23.4 ha in one single block surrounding the winery on south facing slope.
Harvest is between 12 and 20 days duration depending on rain.
7500 vines/ha density pruned to 2 canes only
First sorting in the vineyard then 3 sorting tables at the winery, one before destemming and 2 after destemming.
Transported to the top of the oak fermenters by a conveyor, no must pumping.
All inoculated yeast.
Old concrete fermenters being replaced by SS and oak fermenters still used.
“hand” plunged with giant pneumatic plunger. No pump overs.
YAN and FAN measurements every year.
12 – 24 days on skins , depending on vintage.
Air bag press to SS tank then filled to 100% new oak.
20+ months in oak.
Egg fining in barrel, settle for 6 weeks before racking.
Sterile filtration before bottling (brett prevention) however suggested that Angelus has no issue with brett and never has but prevention is better than cure in the winemakers eyes.
Chateau Canon – 1er Grand Cru Classe B – St Emillion
22 ha of vines
6500 vines/ha
80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc
2 cane pruning with “green harvest” and leaf plucking every year
Harvest is 10 days with 20 pickers
2 vibrating sorting tables
Situated on the limestone terrace adjacent to the township of St Emillion.
Vineyard planted on the limestone quarries under St Emillion
Protected from frost by elevation, slope and the old limestone walls surrounding the vineyard, one of the only wineries that produced wine from the bitterly cold 1766 and 1956 vintages.
Elevation of 87 meters
Vineyard surrounds the winery and first sorting is done in the vineyard. The vineyard will be picked 2 or 3 times in one harvest.
20kg plastic baskets used for picking.
Grape bunches are then sorted at the winery prior to destemming.
Grapes are destemmed onto a second sorting table where berries are sorted.
Berries are then put into a SS “trough” and taken to the top of the SS Vat fermenters and tipped in by hand.
No crushing and pumping.
Fermentation in oak vats and double skinned SS tanks (shaped like vats) nearly all SS fermenters are Double skinned in the wealthy Chateau properties.
1 punch down per day with 2 pump overs. Calculated to move the entire volume of the tank in one pump over.
Ferment temp up to 32 deg C.
MLF in SS vat or new oak, usually 17 – 24 days, each batch inoculated with direct inoculation MLF bacteria.
Barrel hall holds 900 barrels, 600 new, 300 1year old, fully air conditioned.
Wine is racked from oak every 3 months, with SO2 adjusted to 40ppm free prior to refilling.
20 – 24 months in oak.
Egg fining in barrel – usually 3 – 4 egg whites/barrique.
No filtration – not worried about brett, however it was the PR girl we spoke to not the winemaker!
3500 doz of Ch.Canon each year.
Visited the underground quarries under Ch.Canon. Pretty amazing!
Chateau Cos d’Estournel – 1er Grand Cru - St Estephe
Second growth 1855 Medoc classification.
70ha surrounding the winery on the hill of “Cos” , “Hill of pebbles”.
20ha of Sauv blanc (80%) and Semillon (20%) at a different site
60% Cabernet, 40% merlot.
Elevation is around 100 ft above sea level
Very dense planting at 10000 vines/ha
Traditional management techniques used on the 20+ year old vines, each vineyard hand is responsible for 45000 vines and must manage the yearly cycle of these vines, usually everything is done by hand.
Only the 20+ year old vines will be harvested for first label
Average age of vines is 35 years old, regarded as old vines in St Estephe.
4 – 5 canes per vine
Harvest is generally 12 days
32000 case production across the 2 labels
All grapes are hand sorted in vineyard, de-stemmed and berry sorted prior to conveyor to the fermenters.
Fully refurbished wine fermentation cellar and barrel store
80 – 100 % new oak, dependant on vintage
MLF in tank and oak.
Double skin SS fermenters
Innoculated yeast.
D&R daily, many skins left overnight without their wine then wine returned the next morning.
2 additional pump overs per 24 hours.
26 – 30 deg C depending on vintage and tannin extraction.
Basket pressed
Up to 20 days on skins post ferment
No topping of EM’s however gassed every day.
Pump overs rather than punch down on most ferments however some of the vineyard parcels (they have 30 separate sections within their 70ha of red surrounding the winery) will be hand plunged.
Temperature controlled barrel hall for MLF completion in oak
24 months in oak
Egg fining only
Sterile filtration of all red wines.- very very very worried about brett, all wines are analysed for 4 EP and 4 EG.
Just spent millions of Euro on a brand new fermentation cellar and barrel storage hall so they are keen to minimize any potential brett infection in the new winery.
Wines stored at 35-40ppm free SO2 in oak
Controversial Sauv/Sem as it bears the name Cos d’Estournel however the vineyard is many km’s from the winery.
Cos blanc vineyard is Bordeaux’s northern most white grapes.
Hand harvested, de-stemmed and sorted prior to pressing.
100% barrel ferment in 1 year old barrels (could not work out where they get the 1 year old barrels from! They dodged the question!)
Line priced with the red at 150 Euro per bottle from the first release.
This caused more controversy as even the French thought this was arrogant!
Chateau Mouton Rothschild – 1er Grand Cru Classe - Paulliac
First Growth (1973 review of the 1855 Medoc classification)
207 acres of vines
77% Cabernet, 12% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit verdot
Average vine age is 45 years (positively ancient in Paulliac)
8500 vines / ha
Elevated to first growth in 1973- classic quote from Baroness Phillipine on the short intro movie we watched….. “in 1973 my father successfully had Mouton recognized for the superior wine it has always been and with the elevation to first growth status, bought the 1855 classification in line with reality.”
What is interesting about this is that Mouton Rothschild was only founded in 1853 after the purchase of an existing chateau however they took until 1953 to begin challenging the 1855 classification.
The 207 acres are harvested by 400 pickers however if it looks like it is going to rain they use 800 pickers!
Harvested into 15kg baskets, hand sorted after destemming and pumped to oak fermenters.
15 – 25 days on skins however in wet years this is significantly reduced as they have limited fermentation capacity.
temperature controlled to 28 – 30 deg C
There are only 24 vessels at Mouton in total, all oak fermenters. Mouton have no Stainless tanks. There fermenters range in size from 13kl to 28kl.
There other wineries, Mouton Cadet and ??????, is all SS and very few barrels! You don’t get to see this side of the business, it destroys the image!
No inoculated yeast, 100% wild ferments
Plans to build another 48 oak fermenters to expand capacity to a single fill situation.
Mouton was the first winery we visited that did not have a single fill regime for vintage.
For such a wealthy Chateau, the facilities were bordering on sub-standard. It was a huge surprise to everyone on the trip. I would have liked to see the other more modern winery to see where all there money is going.
80 – 100% new oak
MLF bacteria innoculation
Egg fining only – in oak.
All racking is done barrel to barrel, manually, with candles and compressed air hoses.
Barrels are rinsed with cold water only
The underground barrel caves were classically 19th century, filthy conditions and dirt floors. OLD SKOOL….
Blending is using the “l’octopus” , a SS vessel about 1500 ltrs with 12 or so inlets and one outlet. It uses the length of hose and gravity to blend the different batches. Most peculiar situation however Mouton do not have any capacity to make a homogenous blend in 1 tank.
Oak vats are cleaned with water only when empty and dried with a massive blower.
22 months oak maturation.
Racked every 6 months approx with an additional racking 10 days after egg fining in oak.
Sterile filtration before bottling, very brett conscience.
Tasted the 2008 from oak, simply unbelievable wine.
Proudly boasted several times that Mouton was the first to “estate bottle” in Bordeaux.
25000 cases of the Grand Vin every year, that’s 300,000 bottles at a retail price between AUD$300 - $700 depending on vintage. Someone is making a lot of money down the line……
Chateau Legrange – Grand Cru Classe – St Julian
Established in 1631 – well before Australia.!
115 Ha in 1 single block surrounding the winery, mostly gravel and sand.
Average age of the vines is 35 years
7500 – 10000 vines / ha
65% cab Sauv, 28% merlot, 7% Petit Verdot. They have pulled out their Cabernet Franc as it was a disaster.
4 Ha of white, Sauv Blanc , Semillon and Muscadelle.
Pruning to 2 canes/vine, green harvesting and leaf plucking to maintain vineyard quality.
Altitude of 24 metres…..the highest point in St Julien!
Owned by Suntory Beverage Company since 1983.
Purchased for 9 million Euro and have spent 30 million Euro on redevelopment.
Hand picking , no sorting at the winery, crushing and destemming.
New barrel hall, bottling hall and fermentation cellar over the last 5 years.
60 odd fermenters ranging from 7 kl to 23kl in size with a total fermentation capacity of 1 million litres ! Twice our capacity for about 1000 tonnes.
Up to 25 days on skins in total
Direct MLF inoculation into the fermenters during primary and find that primary alcoholic fermentation and secondary MLF usually finish simultaneously in the fermenter prior to pressing with no adverse effects of VA production, infact they were confident that this method has contributed to a significant increase in the wines quality over the last 2 – 3 years.
Ferment temp 28 deg C.
60% new oak aged for 20 months.
We say 2 vintages, 2008 and 1998. the 1998 had huge brett problems, the 2008 looked fantastic.
Sterile filtration of all red wines begun 5 or 6 years ago due to brett issues in several vintages.
A Chateau to watch as the quality has improved since new winemaker started 6 years ago.
Very reasonably priced.
Chateau Larrivet Haut Brion – Cru Classe – Pessac–Leognan , Graves
No association with Haut Brion, the first growth classified winery
Vineyards are on a gravel ridge.
50% Cabernet and 50% Merlot
Average age of 20 years.
45 ha of red and 5 ha of white (Sauv Blanc 60%, Semillon 30%, Muscadelle 10%)
Stainless and epoxy fermentation.
Huge investment in the last decade to improve wine quality
Once the quality was said to rival Haut Brion, a century ago, and the aim is to return to that level.
Inoculated yeast and MLF
Ferment temperatures around 26 deg C
Pump overs only, no D&R or punch down.
15 days on skins Max, more like 7 – 9 days most years.
MLF in tank and oak.
70% new oak
Really cool barrel stacking system.
White left on lees and battonage for 12 months by rotating barrel on individual.
35 – 40ppm free SO2 for reds prior to oak filling.
18 months approx in oak for reds, barrel rotation is important part of the winemaking process, essentially stirring without mixing up the heavy lees on the bottom.
They feel that leaving the heavy lees on the bottom of the barrel and only encouraging the fine lees into solution by gentle rotation allows maximum fruit preservation and oxidative prevention.
Really cool system that made perfect sense at the time but must have cost a bomb.
Wines were OK – probably the weakest of the wines we tried.
Chateau Carbonnieux – Cru Classe – Pessac-Leognan , Graves
Founded in the late 1300’s by Benedictine Monks.
47 Ha red, Cabernet , Merlot , Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
43 ha white, Semillon , Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle.
White grapes are cold soaked for 8 hours before pressing.
Green harvest to reduce crop levels if required.
100% wild yeast ferments, both red and white grapes.
Red ferment temp is 28 – 32 deg c
EM for 4 weeks post fermentation. No topping of tanks.
30% new oak maturation for 18 months
This Chateau is more highly regarded for its white wine rather than its red wine.
Amazing freshness in the whites we tried, the 2005 looked like a current white release.
Not so impressed with the red wine.
Very elaborate sorting system for all the grapes, first sorting in the vineyard, second sorting as bunches on a vibrating table, then into destemmer via conveyor onto second sorting table for the berry sorting then into peristaltic pump to either the must chiller for white cold soak or directly into the top of the red fermenters. No CRUSHER on site.
Red is aged for 18 months in oak.
White is 12 months in oak.
Sterile filtration of red and white prior to bottling.
Chateau Cheval Blanc – 1er Grand Cru Classe A – St Emillion
St Emillion’s First Growth (alond with Ausone)
Owned by LVMH (along with Yquem)
Borders Pomerol
41 ha
57% Cabernet Franc, 43% Merlot
Soil is quite varied, gravel, sand and clay with small sections of iron rich sand and clay. Unique terrior in the region.
Average vine age is 30 years
Organic vineyard practices
Green harvest to reduce crop every year to approx 2 tonne/acre.
Bunch selection is critical in the vineyard, winemaker stressed that it is not uncommon for them to only pick 1 or 2 bunches per vine in the first selection through the vineyard, leaving the rest of the bunches for the second or third pick.
The bunches are then sorted again at the winery prior to destemming, then the berries are sorted after destemming. He emphasized this quite a lot!
Fermentation is carried out in small, untreated concrete fermenters, each holding 3 – 4 tonne of fruit only.
Concrete is rinsed with Tartaric acid prior to filling.
Skin contact time varied from 10 days to 30 days.
Only hand plunged, no pump overs.
The EM’s are not topped, in fact when primary was finished the fermenter lid is closed and the cap is encouraged to dry out ASAP. The fermenters are gassed every 2 days.
Ferment drainings are innoc with MLF bacteria and complete in tank.
Post MLF , gravity to oak.
Cap is basket pressed however pressings are usually discarded or used in cheap unclassified Vin d’Table (never used for winery product)
Egg fining most years in oak, usually 4 egg whites/barrique.
Doing away with some of the old epoxy lined fermenters in favour of smaller untreated concrete fermenters. Several trial conducted over 2 years , concrete vs Stainless and settled on concrete……
6000 cases/year made of Grand Vin Cheval-Blanc
2500 cases/year of Le Petit Cheval
Grand Vin - 100% new oak for 18 months
Le Petit Cheval – 100% new oak – 12 months
2008 wines tasted and definitely my favourite young wines of the trip.
The Berce Forest (on the outskirts of the township of Jupille, surrounding the Commune de Jupille)
This is the forest used when coopers state Jupille as the source of wood, however it should be stated as Berce as this is the name of the forest.
The forest is 5400 ha in size, 97% is dedicated to production and 3% is a reserve.
Berce is in the greater Loire river region.
Managed by the ONF , Office National des Forets, the government department responsible for Forest Management in France.
Not all oak forests are managed by the government, some are privately owned, however Sylvain only source from the ONF managed forests as they are sustainably managed.
The Berce forest is divided into 265 allotments for management purposes.
The forest became the property of the French crown in 1595 and in 1791, after the revolution, it became state property.
In 1669, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the secretary of state in Loius XIV’s court, embarked on an ambitious task of cataloguing all of France’s oak forests.
It was primarily to ensure the French had enough timber to continue building great ships of war (it requires 74 acres or 3500 oak trees to make one war ship in the late 1600’s).
Colbert classified the straightest and tallest trees as “selected” reserve trees to be used as source trees for acorn collection to begin replanting of the forests. This was done to ensure a continual supply of masts for centuries to come.
As a result of this selection, many thousands of acres of forest were thinned and replanted with acorns from these reserve trees.
Several hundred of Colbert’s trees are still growing in the forests.
Every now and then they get hit by lightning and die, the ONF make a decision to cut down these trees and sell them. Sylvain have bought 2 of these trees in the last decade for oak barrel production .
Napolean banned indiscriminate tree felling in the forests in 1803 and set in law that any tree felled must be 150 years. The ONF have now revised this law to ensure sustainable forest management by selecting the weaker trees for felling rather than deciding purely on age.
The complete regeneration of a forest life cycle is approximately 240 years, from seedling to the “final cut” felling, so appropriate long term management strategies must be in place to ensure France does not run out of oak.
Germination
The life cycle begins after the “final cut” felling of one of the plots with germination of the seedlings. There are many hundreds of thousands of acorns waiting to germinate once the old canopy disappears and as a result the plot becomes a thicket of oak trees with hundreds of thousands of seedlings per acre.
The oak trees dominate the forest floor, eliminating competition from other species however the ONF will clear foreign trees if they manage to grow.
I asked the question if they ever need to replant sections that do not germinate….they laughed at my question and moved on so I am guessing they either did not understand my question, thought it was a silly question, thought the answer was to obvious as to not warrant an answer or they just did not know the answer! Gotta love the French.
The ONF are not expanding the ha under oak forest, they feel that the sustainable management of the forests in place now will maintain a supply of French oak for many, many centuries to come.
Gaulis (the Poles)
At 15 – 30 years old the forest has reached 10 – 15 metres.
Natural selection has ensured the strongest trees survive however the ONF will selectively fell any undesirable twisted or weak trees.
It is almost impossible to walk through a 15 – 20 year old oak forest as it is so dense.
Complete canopy cover ensures foreign trees (aside from the beech) does not grow.
An aside- the Beech tree grows brilliantly in an oak forest and the ONF manage the beech trees within the oak forest. They are encouraged to grow with the oak trees to ensure the canopy of the forest remains closed and therefore maintains a hostile environment at ground level for any other plants. The beech trees grow 3 times faster than an oak. The Beech are felled for benchtops, building materials, furniture and laminate timber furniture on a similar sustainable forestry programme managed by a separate arm of the ONF.
The oak tree naturally wants to grow arms, they are not like Pinus Radiata, so it is important to keep the forest under the canopy as dark as possible so any arms that do grow soon die and drop off due to lack of light. The ONF do not trim trees.
Perch 40 – 60 years
Up to 30 meters at this point in there life cycle.
It is at this point that the ONF begin a rigorous active management regime within the Perch plots. These cuts are called “Improvement Cuts”.
Weak, poorly shaped or twisted trees are cut down. Many are left on the forest floor to rot and add to the soil profile. A few larger trees may be sold for firewood and local contractors come into the forest to collect the felled trees.
The human intervention in the separate plots has been set out be regulation and follows a strict set of guidelines, every 6 years for 10 – 75 year old trees, every 8 years for 75 – 125 year old trees and every 10 years for trees over 125 years old.
Futaie (young) – 100 years
The oak tree is now about 40 + metres high and has finished growing in height.
They are about 30 cm in diameter
The ONF continue thinning the forest (improvement cuts), these trees are sold to furniture makers and timber floor companies with several of the exceptional trees being purchased by the coopers however many still regard these trees as to small and non-profitable for barrel production (as 80% of the tree is wasted).
Many of these trees will be sold as firewood.
It is at this point that the ONF inspectors begin looking for the trees that will be marked as “Final Cut” trees. These trees will be banded with white paint and will be destined for the final felling of the plot once they are 250 years old (approx).
Haute Futaie – (Old futaie) 200 years
These forest have been progressively thinned every 10 years to about 100 – 150 trees per Ha with the “improvement Cuts” every 10 years.
The coopers begin to get excited about the Haute Futaie plots as these trees are now quite profitable for barrel production.
The beech trees are removed at this stage to encourage light penetration to the forest floor. The ONF begin the process of germination by preparing the canopy floor by allowing mottled light to penetrate the forest and reach the ground.
Acorns begin to germinate.
Sowers – 220 – 250 years.
These are the final “white banded trees” that act as the acorn sowers for continual germination of the forest floor.
Once the ONF had determined that the germination is good enough the “definitive cut” of the white banded trees in the plot is made.
These trees are the most sought after for barrel manufacture.
Often the lower 2 meters is sold for timber veneer as it is extra high quality. The furniture manufacturers will cut 800 veneer sheets from 1 x 2 mtr tree trunk.
The top 1/3 of the tree is not good enough for oak production and will be sold as firewood.
Sylvain target these plots.
From 200 to 250 years of age the forest is progressively thinned to promote health germination,
The “seedling” cut removes 40 % of the remaining trees in the 200 year old plot.
2 – 3 years later the ONF will clear a further 25% of the trees in the plot.
The next cut , 3 – 5 years later will remove a further 14% of the trees.
A further 14% of the trees will be removed 3 – 5 years down the track.
The definitive cut will remove the final 7% once the ONF have determined that germination is adequate, this may be 5 – 10 years later.
All up it may take 20 – 50 years to make the definitive cut.
The Auction process
The auction process is no longer a reverse auction as it has been in previous years.
The ONF auctions “plots” not individual trees.
The ONF inspectors mark the trees to be cut and publish a yearly brochure with all the forest plots stating the trees available in each plot.
Not all the trees in a plot are available to cut, if you purchase a plot at auction you only own the marked trees to be cut.
These publications are done by forest and the individual auctions are held close to the forests, so if a cooper sources from more than 1 forest they need to refer to more than one brochure and attend several auctions around the country.
Sylvain have a guy, Thiery, who travels France inspecting each and every plot available for sale, looking at every tree that will be sold within each plot and evaluating each individual tree.
This is a full time job.
His estimation is critical to the profitability of the cooperage as it determines how much Jean-Luc will pay for a plot. If Thiery estimates that there will be 120 linear meters of oak available for barrel production within a plot, yet once the trees are felled and evaluated it turns out that imperfections in the trees means that only 80 meters is available for barrel production it naturally makes the barrels more expensive.
There are only a handful of great tree assessors in France
Once you purchase a plot, and therefore the available trees within the plot, not all will be suitable for Barrel production so you can on sell these to other timber merchants or lesser stave mills.
The cooperage has 2 years to fell the trees within a plot.
If you damage another tree while cutting down your trees you get a massive fine from the ONF. Skilled lumberjacks earn quite a lot of money in France!
Once your trees have been removed from the plot, it will be a further 8 years before any other trees become available on the same plot so cooperages have several preferred plots on the go at any one time.
A standard oak tree will have enough timber in it to produce 20 – 30 barrels.
One of the giant 350 year old trees will make around 40 barrels.
As mentioned previously Sylvain have purchased two of the original Colbert trees in recent years and have produced 56 barrels from these trees. They are the Reserve Collection barrels and several have been donated to charity auctions. The last sold for 6000 Euro.
One only is coming to Australia this year.
The exceptional trees of the reserve in Berce Forest
3% of the Berce forest has been designated as Heritage forest and will never be logged.
In the17th century, Colbert planted several exceptional trees in this Berce forest and just 2 remain in the forest. A third was struck by lightning a decade ago and stands as a decaying monument as it was destroyed beyond use.
The best of these trees is regarded as the Chene Boppe, named after a 17th century forest worker, and is regarded as the most perfect oak tree in France.
The original Chene Boppe is now only a stump, as it to died and was cut down over a century ago. The new Chene Boppe stands only 50 metres from the original one and it is an impressive tree. 60 mtrs tall and towering over all the other trees, perfectly straight with no twists in its bark. Pretty impressive tree!
Next door is another of Colbert original trees, 350 years old and equally impressive however a little more twisted.
It is so French , they have a tree classified as the perfect oak tree. …….
Jean-Luc made a big deal out of this tree, it is a special tree for the French.
Impressions
Every winery we visited with the exception of Lagrange sorted at the winery, many pre and post destemming.
There was an enormous emphasis on how many sortings they did, however only Angelus mentioned it was for disease, everyone else said they were looking for green or damaged berries!
I think we only saw 2 crushers, Lagrange and Mouton from memory.
Most of the berries were transported by conveyors to the fermenters or in small
We saw a huge number of peristaltic pumps in all the wineries.
Lots of hand plunging as this compensates for the lack of crushing.
Barrel to barrel racking. 3 guys at Mouton will rack approx 30 barrels per day.
Egg fining in barrel – up to 4 egg whites/barrel (500 ppm)
No one machine harvested, or at least did not admit to it.
Loads of gravity processes and peristaltic pumps in the cellars.
Several of the wineries, including Cheval Blanc, use glass bungs after MLF for 2 months to allow CO2 to escape from solution on bring on tannin/wine development more rapidly. Cheval Blanc believe this to be a critical part of new oak integration.
Mouton was the only winery with 2 o’clock storage in the wineries we visited.
Red SO2 levels at 35 – 40 ppm free post MLF in oak.
Traditional shaped fermenters, even the new SS fermenters were shaped like the old oak vats, and we saw this shape in every winery.
I wonder where all the 1 yr old barrels go? – as the wineries we visited used predominately new oak.
Most wineries were replacing old oak with SS fermenters. Conscience effort to counteract brett. (Mouton are continuing with Oak, Cheval Blanc with concrete)
Most new SS fermenters were double temp controlled, hot and cold, and double skinned with a layer of insulation.
