The guarantee of a great wine lies in the quality of its aging.
A delicate period which begins at the end of fermentation and which ends at bottling, the aging can take place in vats or in barrels, from a few weeks to several months.
Let’s talk about barrel aging, which begins with putting the wine in the container itself (the barrel) and which we call in our region « the entonnage ». This seemingly harmless practice can – if it is not used with reason – degrade the wine by giving it a so-called « plank » taste characterized by very unpleasant dryness in the mouth.
In fact, shortly after bottling, the wine will go through an essential stage called « taking the wood » and during which it will be very drying as the tannins in the wood will have infused into the wine. If the wine is too light, it will retain this defect even after a long aging. But fortunately, in most cases, this astringency will diminish over time and the wine will round off to be ready for tasting in general after 12 to 18 months of aging in barrel.
This is a period when the palate and the experience of the cellar manager are put to the test, because it is necessary to taste at the same time while planning in the months, even years to come.
In our cellars, we choose to use both 225-liter barrels (classic size in Bordeaux) and 500-liter barrels.
Indeed, the seconds marking the wines much less, it is then possible to approach the subtle balance of fruit and wood, pledge of the greatest wines like those of Tourteau Chollet and Ferrand Lartigue.
Because for lovers of our wines, we favor the balance between fruit and wood so that our wines always remain elegant and fully express their fruit.
The aromas of woody, smoked, or vanilla, brought by the barrel, are then only flavor enhancers which delicately highlight the aromas of red and deep fruits of our great wines.
This is why the entonnage and the follow-up of the barrel aging are excessively delicate.
To allow you to better understand the result, we suggest that you taste our wines which are the most representative of this aging method:
– Chateau Tourteau Chollet « 1760 » – Graves Blanc – 2016 [I DISCOVER]
– Chateau Tourteau Chollet « 1760 » -Graves Rouge – 2015 [I DISCOVER]
– Chateau Ferrand Lartigue – Saint Emilion Grand Cru – 2012 [I DISCOVER]