in the cellar : Then they were bunch-sorted, destemmed and berry-sorted on vibration tables by 25 highly trained staff. On average 70% of the berries were gently crushed (while the rest was kept whole) before being deposited into a satellite tank and transported to an open fermenter. The must was dejuiced by 8%. It was given a cold soak of 4 days at 9 °C protected by a CO2 blanket. The juice was pumped over once daily during this period.
The tanks were then heated to 18 °C and inoculated with BM45. The fermentation temperature was allowed to peak at 28 °C. The fermenting cap was punched down four times daily and one pump-over was done per day. A post-fermentation maceration of two weeks was done resulting in the total time spent on the skins being 27 days. The wine was then pressed into 40% new and 60% second and third-fill 300 litre Allier French oak barrels. The press fraction was separated. Malolactic bacteria were inoculated and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels.
After malolactic fermentation, the wines were given a low sulphur dose and left on the gross lees for 11 months. The wine was then racked, blended and returned to barrel. After a total of 20 months in barrel, the wine was filtered through a coarse sheet filter. Bottling was done with a fine sheet filtration.