From the exploitation of the vines to the cuvées.

The size, the preparatory and founding activity for the quality of the juices!

The cuvées:

In search of great maturity

We pay particular attention to all activities upstream of winemaking, the maintenance of the vines, their size, the optimization of photosynthesis, the selection of grapes …
Four checks are made between the picking and the press to keep only the berries with sufficient sugar concentration.
Picker, porter, stevedore and winemaker select the bunches that will make up the cuvée.

The pruning is done so that one foot does not support too much grape and allows the bunches to capture the energy they need.

It requires a know-how to maintain the balance between the leaf surface necessary for the irrigation of the plant, but without having too much so that the leaves do not take up all the sap to the detriment of the grapes.

It is a subtle balance that must be found!

End of October to April, period devoted to pruning.

Chablis pruning for Chardonnay, Cordon for Meunier and Pinot noir.

Founding activity of a balanced development of vines, we start pruning at the end of October and continue it until April. We use two types of pruning: Chablis for Chardonnay, Cordon for Meunier and Pinot noir.

Difficult work due to the number of plants to be pruned, the harsh climatic conditions and the physical position to be supported, this activity conditions the development of the berries, their maturity, the quality of the pulp between the skin and the pips, the concentration of sugar and aromas.

The characteristics of the size are directly correlated with the quality of the berries. So that a badly carried out pruning can lead to a poorly developed grape, with little pulp, a high level of acidity and a lower sugar concentration.

By organizing the frame and the branches, we influence the quantity of sap that circulates and nourishes the berries and leaves. A high concentration of grapes on a branch harms the development of the berries and the quality of the juice. Size is a balancing act!

Ten full months after the start of pruning, the start of the harvest.

The berries are ripe, nourished by the sap during these long months. It’s harvest time, we pick with care.

Intense activity: The harvest.

The evolution of the climate influences the harvest period. It now starts at the end of August. Fifteen years ago, we started around mid-September. It is now a significant gap.
It is therefore a period of intense activity during which we harvest a little more than one hundred and thirty thousand kilos of grapes that we sort, select to keep only the fruits at maturity.

Picker, porter, stevedore and winegrower carry out the necessary checks to retain only the grapes that will constitute the cuvée.

Of the total harvest, we retain 80%.

This is a condition for obtaining juices containing sugar and aromas of the harvested terroir. And do not add sugar. We cultivate the natural.

The full bins are sent to the press.

The marc sorted by terroir, parcel and grape variety are carefully poured into the press.

We select the juices to have wines imbued with the taste and aromas of the land.

Each bin, bearing the mention of the town, the plot, the grape variety, is carefully poured into the press, without prolonged waiting after picking. The marc is then pressed slowly until it reaches about a bar.

We proceed slowly with this pressure to properly fragment the juices according to the qualities we want to obtain.

We make a first pressure which makes it possible to recover the juice located between the skin and the seeds. It is rich in sugar and acidity, it reveals the terroir. There follow two turn-ups from which we obtain two different qualities of juice.

We do not keep the juice obtained from the second roll up because it is low in sugar, acidity and quite colorful.

The blends, the Meunier in majesty.

At the assembly stage, we already have the backbone of the wine. The work carried out in the vines brings the expected benefits.

Rather low yield, severe sorting of the grapes, natural exploitation, exclusion of any input are sources of great maturity of the grapes and a wine full of freshness and minerality.

Our blends favor Meunier, white flesh and black skin, which knows how to take advantage of its geological and climatic environment.

Three months of fermentation in the bottle allow the wine to continue its maturity and obtain a fine bubble, pleasant to the palate.

Olivier de Beyssac

olivier.debeyssac@beyssac.eu

+33(0)6 03 12 40 47

www.beyssac-belleaucourt.fr