Our Know-how

One passion:
a love of the land

"Terroir resonates. Those who know how to listen to it and understand it, become its best interpreter: great wines are born from this blend."

The expression of terroirs

A property, a blend of terroirs, a wine.
Listening, deciphering each type of soil, understanding it to get the best out of it.

terroir de graves

Soil knowledge

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Soil knowledge

In-depth studies and precise soil mapping have been carried out for all our vineyards.

These tools are essential for a perfect understanding of soil type. They enable us to obtain a perfect match between terroir and grape variety.

They also help us to fine-tune our decisions on planting density and optimal foliage surface by adapting our trellising heights. Rootstocks are carefully selected.

Vine growing

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Vine growing

We work on all our estates according to a logic of sustainable agriculture that takes into account the objective of quality, respect for the environment and the protection of workers.

Committed since 2010 to a voluntary and responsible approach to environmental protection, we give priority to the plant’s natural defenses. Soil work is carried out with precision to safeguard soil microbial activity.

No deep ploughing, but surface actions to preserve the plant and encourage its natural defences by allowing the roots to bury themselves several dozen centimetres deep.

Harvesting at optimum maturity

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Harvesting at optimum maturity

The harvest, a crucial phase, is carried out by selecting the grapes in the most meticulous way possible.

A good wine is the result of a well-grown grape harvested at the right time.

Harvesting, whether manual or mechanical, is carried out only after rigorous sorting. During the harvest period, our teams criss-cross the vineyards daily, tasting the berries to determine precisely when the grapes are perfectly ripe and when they should be picked. Each plot has its own specific characteristics.

The decision to harvest is taken when the best balance between sugars, acidity, phenolic and aromatic compounds has been reached.

The grapes are then transported quickly and carefully to our vinification cellars. The white grapes pass through a cold room (around 8°C), adjacent to the vat room, to be pressed at low temperature.

The art of winemaking

Vinification of white wines

Pressing

Cold grapes are gently pressed in an oxygen-free environment to extract the best from the fruit. The recovered juice is then clarified by natural sedimentation before fermentation.

Fermentation

To produce our Entre-deux-Mers white wines, the juices are fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks.

Breeding

Our Pessac-Léognan white wines are complex, fine wines with great ageing potential. Here, the juices are vinified in barrels and amphorae on lees for between 8 and 16 months, depending on the cru.

Vinification of red wines

When the grapes arrive at the vat room, although the technique varies from chateau to chateau, the objective is always the same: to select the best quality berries possible.

Fermentation

Alcoholic fermentation, which takes place under the action of yeast, lasts an average of one week. This stage transforms the sugars in the must into alcohol.

At the same time, maceration takes place. The coloring matter and tannins contained in the grape skins diffuse into the must. Their extraction is controlled by pumping-over. Our red wines for ageing, for example, require a longer maceration period, in order to obtain a good structure and guarantee their suitability for ageing.

Press work

We then proceed to drain the vats. Each vat is emptied of its wine, which is then separated from the marc. The drained wine is called vin de goutte, as opposed to vin de presse, which is obtained by pressing the marc. The latter, richer in color and tannins, may or may not be blended with the free-run wine, depending on its quality.

Shortly afterwards, a second, bacterial fermentation, called malolactic fermentation, begins. This naturally reduces the wine’s acidity and softens it.

The use of press wine will have an impact on the style of the wine that only the oenologist can determine.

Breeding

Once stabilized, the wine begins its ageing phase: in vats, barrels or amphorae. This final stage allows the wine to reveal its full aromatic complexity.

Depending on the style of wine desired, aging will take place either in vats (for a fruity wine, intended for fairly rapid consumption), or in barrels or amphorae for a more complex wine, with greater aging potential.

Controlling packaging

Active members of the Bordeaux EMS since 2010, the sustainable development approach has become part of our daily life, thanks to the rigor and continuous improvement required to obtain HVE level 3 certification. This has brought us profound changes in our approach to winemaking. Aware of the importance of preserving the biodiversity of our sites, we wanted to go even further by integrating a societal dimension into our approach.

Our commitments in the field take many and varied forms, and are the result of a strong commitment on the part of all our employees. In particular, we attach great importance to the choice of materials used in our dry materials. Our selection criteria include the quality and proximity of our suppliers.

chateau de cruzeau chai barriques

Our concrete actions

  • To reduce our carbon footprint, we work wherever possible with French and local companies using cleanly sourced and/or recycled materials. We also take into account their own commitment to a CSR policy.
  • Over the past 4 years, we’ve developed labels made from hay and recycled paper, and stopped using certain varnishes.
  • Our glassines on which the labels are delivered are recycled.
  • At the same time, we have considerably reduced the weight of our bottles, saving several hundred tonnes of carbon footprint.
  • We have reconsidered the use of our wooden crates for the packaging of our grands crus. With a view to finding an alternative that combines respect for our CSR charter and brand image, we are now offering our customers top-of-the-range cardboard boxes, with visuals produced using solvent-free inks.

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