When, after tasting, we consider that the wine is ready, we draw it off from the lees and then we add a small quantity of sulphites to stabilise it if there is any remaining residual sugar. No sulphite is added if all the sugar has been fermented.
For Pinot Noir, our methods have changed quite a bit over the years. The juice from mature grapes is macerated for about 10 days and stirred a few minutes every other day to homogenise the must and allow the extraction of anthocyanins to give colour to the wine.
Fermentation is allowed to start naturally during maceration. At the end of vatting, the must is drawn off and gently pressed to extract the potential of any remaining juice.
Malolactic fermentation also occurs naturally.
The juice obtained from old parcels is more concentrated and is placed after maceration in 500-litre oak barrels and given time over the year to finish the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation processes.
The wine is then bottled, without the addition of any sulphites or other inputs.
Both whites and reds are filtered using earth (kieselguhr).
The switch to biodynamics both in the vineyards and in the cellar has let us go further into the possibilities the process offers, while allowing microorganisms to play a larger role. We still firmly believe, however, that the human touch remains a vital part of the winemaking process, to allow the wine to express the full potential of our terroirs and varietals.
Vinifying our wines comes mostly down to a question of feeling rather than adherence to purely technical criteria.
While a wine needs to hit the right balance between sugar, alcohol, acidity and minerality, the most important thing is the emotion it produces when drunk.
Whereas our wine making process is adapted every year to the specificities of the vintage, it is the result of many years of observation.
Our work today consists of allowing the microorganisms naturally present in the grape juice to do their work largely undisturbed.
The juice is obtained after between 7 and 8 hours pressing and no sulphite is added. The must deposit will precipitate naturally by gravity to the bottom of the tank and allowed to settle before the clear must, which still contains fine particles for the indigenous yeasts to feed off, is drawn off to allow natural fermentation to start.
Density and temperature (which is kept at around 20°C) are the only elements which are regulated during the fermentation process.
We remain convinced that the place of Man is essential in these processes of transformation, in order to accompany our wines to a fair transcription of our terroirs and grape varieties.
