PROCESS
Vinification
Throughout the wine-making process, we regularly smell, taste and analyse our wines to monitor their development and guarantee their quality. Once the maturing process is complete, the wines are filtered and then bottled for you to enjoy them at your table!
When the harvest is brought in, the grapes are immediately sent to the presses. Freshly harvested grapes are fragile, and the juice released during transport can deteriorate rapidly. Direct pressing allows us to optimally preserve the qualities of the future wine. The juice obtained is then settled and placed in a temperature-controlled stainless steel vat.
Fermentation begins 7 to 15 days after the harvest and lasts around 3 weeks. The wine is then matured for several months (minimum 5 months), 2 of which are spent on the lees left over from fermentation.
When the harvest arrives, the grapes go through a sorting table, during which we manually select only the good grapes and eliminate any impurities. The stalks are removed using a de-stemmer, and the whole berries are placed in vats to begin the pre-fermentation cold maceration.
During maceration, we pump over twice a day. When the grapes are in the vat, the juice remains at the bottom of the vat, while the berries float to the top: this is called the cap. Pumping over involves pumping out the juice and sprinkling it over the cap to mix it all together. Maceration of the skins and pips provides colour, aromas and some of the tannins in our future red wine.
Fermentation begins around 7 days after vatting and lasts between 1 and 2 weeks. Once fermentation is complete, maceration will continue for a few more days. Then it’s time to decant the red. Firstly, we extract the free-run juice, which is placed in a vat, before pressing the pomace to extract the press juice. Depending on the year, this juice may be filtered before being blended with the free run juice, or blended directly if it is clear enough.
This mixture is then placed in oak barrels. The red wine then undergoes a 2nd fermentation: malolactic fermentation. This enables the breakdown of malic acid (which is harder on the palate) into lactic acid. The wine is then matured for 6 to 8 months in oak barrels.
These wines are made from our oldest vines (30 to 50 years old), mainly on Terres Blanches terroirs. We return to the first stages of traditional white winemaking. Once the juice has settled, it is transferred to 500-litre oak barrels for fermentation and maturing on the lees. This wine is matured for a minimum of 10 months.
The Prestige is made with grapes from 50 to 70 year old vines, planted by André, mainly on the Caillottes sector. The first stages are identical to the traditional reds. After blending the free-run and press juices, the wine is placed in new, 1-wine or 2-wine oak barrels. As for the traditional reds, it undergoes malolactic fermentation and then ageing, for a minimum of 10 months.
Silex is made from our plot of flintstone at Vinon, Le Crot à l’Âne, planted in the 1980s by our father Louis DEZAT. It is harvested and vinified in the same way as the traditional whites, but it is completely separated from the rest of our production, ensuring full expression of its origins. After fermentation, the wine is matured in vats for 8 to 10 months.
