The vineyard is worked traditionally by hand. The actions taken are the fruit of observation, cluster after cluster, to accomplish the right handiwork - leaf removal, pruning, soil decompaction, etc.

Vins - Clos Dubreuil - Vignoble Saint-Emilion - Benoit Trocard

Yield is determined during pruning

The vine, exquisitely precise work

The vine is pruned using the Royat cord technique. This technique makes it possible to spread the bunches of grapes out and take advantage of sunshine for homogeneous ripening.

Clos Dubreuil

The Making of a Great Wine

The vines are considered to be part of the ecosystem. This is why special attention is paid to the vines, so that they can grow in the most natural way possible.

Harvesting by hand

The vines are harvested after an analytical verification of the grapes, but also daily tasting of the berries is done as the harvest approaches. This guarantees that the grapes are harvested at full maturity. Every effort is made to handle the grapes as little as possible. The harvest is placed in small crates and spread out in a single layer, with the bunches of grapes lying side by side. The small crates are then left in a row to be picked up with a small cart and brought directly to the winery.

Maturation and winemaking

The gravity-flow technique is used in the wine cellar in order to touch the grapes as little as possible and monitor each step. The goal is to keep the juice from oxidizing as much as possible. After whole-bunch sorting, destemming and manual sorting, it’s time for manual extraction using a must plunger, once alcohol fermentation has begun. Halfway through fermentation, the grapes are moistened with the juice taken from the bottom of the tank to spray the marc on the surface. Whether or not the wine is finished is determined by tasting. The nectar is then sent by gravity-flow down into the barrel cellar for malolactic fermentation, before being aged for 18 to 20 months. The wine in the French oak barrels (60% new and 40% wine previously used for ageing) is tasted every two months to monitor the progress of maturation, oxidation and reduction. Once blended, the wines are pumped back into the vats. Blind fining tests are done to determine how much egg white is needed to purify the wine and thus achieve the best possible taste.

Parcel-based vinification to reveal the grape’s singularities