Our working methods
Ancient farming methods are faithfully reproduced in the interest of balancing longevity and yield of the vines.
Our approach to the vineyard is governed by the principles of sustainable agriculture , so the phytosanitary protection of the vineyard is balanced by the needs of the plant, its fruit and the pressure of diseases and pests.
For more than a decade, weeding has been purely mechanical, without any chemical herbicide application.
The winemaking methods are also the simplest with plot selection at harvest time and a final sorting of the berries before vatting. Thanks to this and our thermoregulation equipment, we control the vinification period as precisely as possible.
Average annual production
More than 51 vines on 000 hectares, around 10 hectoliters, for a potential of some 450 bottles.
Winter work
Pruning and removing antlers
After the leaves fall, we prune the vines to keep only two: those which will bear the fruits of the next harvest.
Then, starting in January, we cut down the pruned wood. We then prepare the plots for a new growing season, with maintenance operations such as carassonnages , which consists of repairing trellis wires and stakes, and racouptages (or compantations) , which refers to the replacement of dead plants with young plants (or compants).
All you have to do is wait for the vegetation to regain its rights and for the buds to bloom to reveal stems and leaves, then the clusters.
Soil and plant work
In Spring a new season begins
After abandoning all use of chemical weed killers in 2007, and by regularly reworking the cavaillon (furrow of earth and grass between the vines) during the growing season, we decided in 2019 to use cover crop sowing.
These sowings help to control unwanted plants, which complicate the daily work of the vineyard. Sowing cover crops such as vetch, clover, rye, oats, and many others facilitates mechanical weeding.
This process uses the allepathic power of plants (a natural phenomenon exerting a direct or indirect, positive or negative effect of one plant on another).
These controlled weeds also have other benefits: through their root system, they facilitate the decompaction and aeration of the soil, the delivery of water and nutrients to the vines, and limit the action of certain pests and plant diseases. Vine.
Then comes the work of the plants
Several manual and mechanical operations follow one another.
Shoot thinning is the act of removing all new shoots that are poorly placed on the trunk of the vine or undesirable (they do not bear fruit and exhaust the plant), in order to keep only the well-established young shoots.
When the branches begin to grow, the lifting process involves raising two wires, between which the trellis is placed, to allow machinery and workers to pass between the rows. A second, or even a third, lifting is often necessary.
Beyond a certain density, lifting is no longer sufficient and the tips of the vine must be trimmed.
Leaf removal, thinning, and green harvesting are all additional operations that help to improve the health of the vines by reducing foliage density and the load of grapes on the trellis. However, today it is necessary to adapt our cultivation practices to the changing climate, including the increasing frequency of heat waves, which sometimes cause scalding (burning) of the grape bunches. This is why we are increasingly avoiding these operations.
Plant protection for vines is an important and decisive element for the protection of the plant and its fruit. Our approach to sustainable agriculture for spray treatments is increasingly governed by a systematic and case-by-case assessment of protection needs: it is the constant search for a balance between productivity and the environment.
Of the grappe au verre
Harvest and vinification
Since 1979, the harvest has been carried out by machine (except for our rosé and the youngest plants depending on new plantings).
Providing results very similar to manual harvests on red grape varieties, the mechanization of the harvest allows us to adapt as closely as possible to the desired maturity and to be less subject to weather constraints by saving time.
The sorting takes place both on the harvesting machines, and then upon receipt of the harvest before fermentation.
Subsequently, the lightly crushed berries are transferred into our temperature-controlled concrete vats where they will undergo alcoholic fermentation (transformation of natural sugar into alcohol) under the action of yeasts, generally for seven to ten days.
At this precise moment, we extract the best from the material:
Anthocyanins , which give the color, are found mainly in the skin of the grape and migrate into the juice through the maceration of the berries.
Tannins , the basis of wine structure, are mainly found in the skin and seeds.
Pumping up and/or load shedding
This involves extracting tannins and anthocyanins by stirring the must from the bottom to the top of the tank to water the marc and burst the berries so that their compounds migrate towards the juice.
Deshedding, a non-systematic operation, consists of emptying the vat completely of its juice and then returning it to the dried pomace.
Flow and press
After about 4 weeks in the vat, the first juice (free-run juice) must be drained and then the remaining pomace pressed to give the press juice.
These two juices will be kept at a temperature of about 20 degrees so that the malolactic transformation takes place under the action of bacteria (phase during which malic acid is transformed into lactic acid) and allows the finished wine to be “stabilized”.
Racking
This last phase completed, the wines are racked to provide them with oxygen and separate the lees, the vinification is then completed.
Aging and preparation for bottling
During this phase, the wine will evolve and age for a year in vats before all the batches from the different plots are definitively assembled.
Our Petit Mangot 100% merlot in AOC Saint Emilion and our emblematic merlot/cabernet-franc blend in AOC Saint Emilion Grand Cru will be aged in concrete tanks only.
Our 100% merlot Miss Petit Mangot, still in AOC Saint Emilion Grand Cru , will be aged in oak barrels.
Once the aging has come to an end, it is appropriate to prepare the wine for bottling and to decide, with the support of our oenologist, on the distribution of batches and blends.
Crucial and fascinating question:
Which batch will make up the “Saint Emilion”, which others will be the “Grand Cru”?
