Two hard days for the bottling of our Cuvée
Sainte Anne and Blanc de Blancs. But the bottling don’t begin when we put the
first empty bottle on the machine. For the winegrower, that period begins with
the preparation of the yeasts. Those yeasts that will transform the sugar into Alcohol,
and produce Carbonic gas, bubbles, pression etc … ask me a lot of work to be in
the best health. At this period, the yeasts are compared to the babies of the
winegrower. I had to check every two hours if the yeasts had sugar to eat, and enough
oxygen to breathe. If we do not follow the percentage of sugar each hour or two
hours, those yeasts could die, the same for the oxygen, as they produce
carbonic gaz during the transformation of the sugar into alcohol, if we do not
put air in the vat, they could stop there micro activity. So more than a week
before, I followed this activity to be sure that the second fermentation of the
Champagne, in the bottle, will be perfect.
For 2008, we were quite lucky because of the
weather. Nice days with “hot temperatures” are good signs for this fermentation.
The first bottling of this year spent two days, very hard and intense days,
because of the rhythm we had to follow. 11 persons to be sure that everything
is perfect during the bottling of two cuvees : The Cuvée Sainte Anne, and the
Blanc de Blancs. A particular year because of two reasons. First for the cuvee Sainte
Anne, which didn’t receive Meunier wines during the blending. The second Cuvée,
the Blanc de Blancs, is now only made from a 40 years old vine, called le
Heurtebises. A 100% Chardonnay with very deep roots, that gives to the wine, a
very singular and intense taste of minerality, and high maturity.
But everybody weren’t next to the machine
during the bottling. Some were in the cellar, to build the big walls of
bottles. 2 walls of more than 5000 bottles to gain place during the stockage of
those bottles. (You can see the second one on the pictures).
Now that those two cuvees are bottled, we have
to take care of the temperature In the cellar, and also to follow the different
evolutions of the wines we’ll bottle during a second bottling period. A 100%
Meunier from non grafted plants, and a 100% Pinot noir from a 50 years old vine
“selection massale”. Two very nice wines, one worked in barrel, the second is a
blending of the same wine, but vinified
in barrel and in inox vats.
You can find more informations of our bottling
in our French weblog (only due to the language difficulties!).
Have a nice day wherever you are
Commentaires