September means back-to-school season and, for winegrowers, it mostly means the grapes’ “back-to-the-cellar.” Harvest time is always a special moment in the year. After the well-deserved summer break, the pace suddenly quickens.
Benoit has known the frenetic rhythm of harvest for over 20 years with his main company, Maison Lavau. For Anna, the six vintages spent in Châteauneuf-du-Pape allowed her to see and learn every step of the transformation from grape to wine. So, this September, we invite you to discover the process of harvest and winemaking through each wine of our Aventure range.
And to begin, let’s take a walk through the vineyards, because at the heart of it all is the fruit. Or is it the terroir, you might say, the true foundation of everything? But what exactly is terroir? You hear this term among winemakers and wine merchants, yet few know its full meaning. For some, it’s the soil, since its composition, whether sandier, more clayey, chalky, stony, or sprinkled with a touch of magic dust, defines the wines. For others, it’s the vine, the grape variety, the fruit… Yes, but fruit is the expression of that vine and soil, influenced by the climate and the weather of a given vintage. Heat, cold, rain, wind, all of these also shape the aromas of the wine. And the winegrower? The one who plows the soil, plants the vines, ties, prunes, debuds, lifts, strips leaves, thins shoots, waters, harvests… Yes, the winegrower plays just as important a role in defining terroir. Because terroir is the union of soil, grape variety, climate, and people.
So, let’s continue our walk. Picture yourself winding through the vineyards of the Rhône Valley, surrounded by beautiful Grenache, Syrah, or Clairette vines. Harvest begins with this stroll: we taste a few grapes to evaluate flavor intensity, split them open to check the seeds’ color and browning, signs of ripeness. We also bring some back to the lab to see if analysis confirms what our palates found. Choosing the harvest date is one of the most important decisions in winemaking. Too early, and the fruitiness will be thin, and the green seeds will yield harsh tannins. Too late, and alcohol overpowers finesse, or rain might spoil everything. Then comes harvest itself: by hand, with sorting tables, for the “Haute Couture” version; or by machine, for speed and precision if weather is threatening, that’s the ready-to-wear version. This is the start of what oenologists call the “technical itinerary.”
How do we make fresh and fruity white wineslike our cuvée l’Envol?
First, we harvest the grapes at the right moment: not too ripe. The alcohol level should be a support, but it must not be too high. When the grapes arrive at the cellar, we separate the berries from the stems (the green stalk that carries the grapes) using a destemmer. By rotating, it detaches the berries and allows the stem to be discarded; stems could bring green tannins and unwanted herbaceous flavours. The berries then go into the press and, very slowly, over hours, we gently press the grapes to extract the juice. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen grape juice coming out of a press, but it isn’t clear: it therefore needs clarification; that is one of the secrets of white winemaking: clarity before the start of fermentation. If it’s not very clear, you will lose all the fruitiness; if it is too clear, the yeasts that transform sugar into alcohol won’t be able to work well. But the choice of clarity also defines the aromatic profile of the wine you will obtain: if you want a pure, shining fruit, like in L’Envol, you should aim for clarity; if you want less brilliance and more complexity in the aromas, a little less clarity. But everything lies in the “little”: you must play very finely.
The other secret is fermentation temperature (the transformation of sugar into alcohol by the work of yeasts): between a fermentation at 15 °C and at 18 °C, yeasts will not behave the same way and you will not get the same results. Imagine them at 15 °C: they are cold, they don’t work very fast and therefore cannot do the same job as at 19 °C. A bit like us: we get less done in the snow than in spring sunshine. And obviously, because they don’t work the same way, they don’t create the same aromas. When they are cold, they must imagine themselves on icy plains because the aromas move closer to white fruits, and if it’s warmer they imagine being under the tropics because the aromas are more exotic. So we ferment the wine in a temperature-controlled stainless-steel tank to be able to choose the temperature. The length of fermentation is not always regular. It can last a few days, 15 days or 3 weeks, sometimes more. Once fermentation is over, we filter the wine to remove the yeasts and the particles in suspension. It’s ready, but we will wait a few more months so it can rest in tank before bottling to stabilise the aromas.
What about La Glisse?
This wine differs from the previous one by its structure because it has more aromatic complexity (oaky notes) and fuller mouthfeel. To create this style of wine, we follow the same starting technical itinerary as for L’Envol: we wait for optimal grape maturity, then harvest, destem, press the berries and clarify. But instead of fermenting in a stainless tank, we ferment in fairly large oak barrels (so as not to bring too much oaky flavours). We may target a certain clarity, but temperature is more complex to regulate in barrel: generally, barrels are kept in a cool room, but wines still ferment at a higher temperature than in a temperature-controlled tank. In any case, fermentation in wood brings complexity which combines well with a slightly higher fermentation temperature, the fruit’s freshness balancing the contribution of the wood. This type of fermentation is also more meticulous, because each 500-litre barrel requires as much work as a 5,000 or 10,000-litre tank. The wines will also spend 4 to 6 months in barrels after fermentation to continue integrating the oak aromas so that they’re well rounded and not too pronounced, and also to develop the full mouthfeel we mentioned earlier. It develops through the lees: small particles of dead yeast that settle little by little at the bottom of the barrel and notably by putting these lees back in contact with the wine. We simply stir what’s in the barrel with a stick: this is bâtonnage.
And bubbles: how do you make a sparkling wine like La Vibration?
Several technical routes exist for sparkling wines: from the most basic, which consists of injecting bubbles into the wine (CO₂, actually), up to the longest and most complex, which is the traditional method (used to be called “méthode champenoise”, but oops, we can’t use that name anymore).
La Vibration is a Crémant and Crémants must be produced with the traditional method, it’s the law. Here things get a bit more complicated because we’re talking about not one but two fermentations.
The first is a totally classic method, the same as we use for making fruity whites (like L’Envol), with two exceptions: grapes are picked earlier, before full ripeness, at around 8–9° potential alcohol, and we do not separate the berries from the stems. We press whole bunches very gently, which implies manual harvesting (when harvested by machine, you only recover the berries from the vines). Once fermentation ends, we obtain a dry white wine with low alcohol. At this stage, a producer can blend several base wines (different varieties, different vintages, wines from different soils) to create their own recipe. In Champagne, this is a key step because, unlike still wines which are known to come from good, excellent or lesser vintages, Champagnes must have a certain consistency each year. You’ll notice next time that most Champagnes don’t carry a vintage on the bottle because the base wines from several vintages were blended together. Yes, some Champagnes are vintage: those are made from wine of a single year, and usually those are exceptional.
Anyway, back to our Crémant. Now that we have our blended base wine, we fill each bottle and add a little “liqueur de tirage” (a mixture of sugar and yeast) and we seal the bottle with a crown cap (like beer). The amount of sugar must be carefully measured to reach the optimal amount of bubbles and the right pressure in the bottle: a little too much and it’s fireworks in your living room! The bottles are then laid flat in the cellars for this second fermentation which takes place directly in the bottle. When the yeasts have done their work, sealed in their little pools, they will have transformed the sugar into alcohol and the gas from this transformation will not have been able to escape. It will therefore wait patiently to express its enthusiasm when the bottle is opened, with its famous joyful pop.
In the meantime, when the in-bottle fermentation ends, the dead yeasts (lees) settle at the bottom of the bottle. The producer will then choose how long the bottles will rest on their lees since that influences the aromatic profile of the Crémant: the longer the lees remain in contact with the wine, the more brioche and pastry notes you’ll obtain. For Crémants, the minimum time is 9 months, but it can go on for a few years.
When the maturation period is over, it’s time to remove the lees. Bottles are put at an angle, head down, so that all that floating matter collects in the neck. Bottles are turned a quarter-turn at a time, either by hand (old and very slow process) or placed in a gyropalette which gradually rotates them: this is riddling (remuage). The bottles are then placed vertically head down, all the lees now gathered in the neck. The bottles are chilled to about 7 °C and the necks are dip in frozen brine bath to quickly freeze the neck. The disgorging machine turns the bottles upright and removes the cap. The internal pressure expels the frozen plug that contains the lees and the bottles are topped up, this time with what we call the “liqueur d’expédition” (a mixture of wine and sugar). It is at this step that we determine the final level of sugar in the wine: zero dosage, brut, extra brut, demi-sec, etc. The bottle is then closed with the famous mushroom cork and a wire cage is added to ensure the cork isn’t ejected by the pressure. And there you have our beautiful and tasty Crémant.
Right, it’s time to continue the harvest. Often white grapes are picked first, but afterwards we move on to the red grapes, starting with those destined for rosé. How do we make Le Souffle then?
Here the winemaking method is similar to L’Envol: destemming, pressing, clarification and fermentation… all the same! The specificity lies elsewhere: before, it’s in the fruit. Back in the vineyards: to make a rosé like Le Souffle, you need freshness and a pronounced fruitiness. We taste the grapes and look for that liveliness that comes with a certain acidity: we look for brightness. We avoid a too-high alcohol level. So we pick early and vinify as a fresh, fruity white. A few words have just described Le Souffle, but rosé is a fragile wine, one of the most complicated to produce. It demands precision throughout its creation: the right harvest date, the right clarification, the right temperature and no air that oxidises the aromas.
The harvest moves forward and it never stops, it’s already time to start the reds (of course, it would be too simple if it was one after the other, you have to imagine everything overlapping so oenologists and winemakers struggle to keep up). We begin with La Balade, our fruity red wine.
But before that, it’s time to talk about polyphenols, those famous compounds good for your health and your heart (and yes, they are the same ones you put on your face for better skin!). It’s not a pretty word, but to simplify, these are what define the tannins and the colour of our wines, and they are found mainly in the skins of the grapes. Colour matters because it’s pretty, of course, but also because it gives you an idea of the concentration you’ll find in the wine: if it’s a pretty ruby you already imagine the bursting fruit; a nearly black red, you sense the density before it even reaches your lips. There are also the tannins: you know, the ones that rasp and dry the mouth. That happens when the grape hasn’t been picked ripe. Tannins in red wine are very important: they provide structure, but also roundness and silkiness when the wine ages slowly in oak or in bottle. Of course there’s not only tannin. There’s also alcohol, which is a flavour enhancer, and acidity, which supports the wine’s framework and is also a major factor for ageing, by the protection it provides.
So, back to La Balade and back to the vineyards: you must wait for ripe fruit, the polyphenols must be mature. We taste the grapes to find fruit mature enough while remaining crisp. We’ll wait for well-browned seeds, signs of good tannin maturity, and we cross our fingers that this maturity comes with a reasonable potential alcohol level (sometimes polyphenolic and alcoholic maturities are offset, and then you have to choose the right compromise: it’s a balancing act, this job!). Once you’re there, you mustn’t waste time: harvest the grapes, off to the destemmer, then crush them in a crusher and put them into a tank. And then you have to look after them so they release what interests us: aromas, tannins and colour. We therefore want the juice to remain in contact with the skins, which tend to rise and form a pretty “cap” at the top of the tank. There are three major techniques to do this maceration work:
- Remontage (pump-over): we wait for the cap to form, then pump juice from underneath and spray it over the grapes. In doing so each day, sometimes several times a day, the juice washes the cap and extracts everything good it contains.
- Délestage (rack-and-return): you remove the juice and put it in another tank and leave the skins alone, compact and tight. Then, like people in the metro, they start to get warm and release the substances we’re after. You pour the juice back over them and when the grapes rise to the surface they leave all those good polyphenols in the liquid.
- Pigeage (punch-down): this can be done by foot (less common today) or using a large wooden or metal pole to push the cap back into the juice; the mechanical agitation releases what we’re after.
But be careful: you must dose these techniques correctly and use them at the right time and, of course, adapt them to the style of wine you want. When fermentation is just starting you extract mostly colour and fruity aromas without extracting too many tannins; you can therefore even do a cold pre-fermentation maceration if you want a fruity profile like La Balade. When fermentation progresses and alcohol rises, you start to extract tannins. To make powerful wines intended to be aged for many years, you can even continue maceration after fermentation: that’s post-fermentation maceration. But if you push too far, you’ll extract green tannins, and just writing that makes my mouth dry!
And the fermentation temperature, you’ll ask? Between 23 and 28 °C generally for wines with a fruity profile like La Balade, up to 32 °C for more powerful wines like L’Immersion.
We then patiently wait for the second fermentation, the malolactic fermentation: this time no more yeasts, it’s bacteria (naturally present in the grapes) that take over. It’s necessary for reds because it converts malic acid (sharp and green) into lactic acid, which is softer and makes the wine more stable. After all these adventures, La Balade rests in tanks. We’ll see later, after winter, for bottling.
Finally, a few words about L’Immersion, our powerful, complex and deep red.
In the vineyard, the search is the same as for La Balade, perhaps with fruit that’s less crunchy but denser and riper, and this time we will wait until the stems yellow so that they finish in the tank with the grapes to bring additional fine tannins. Same extraction methods, but varying intensity and timing because we’re seeking more structure, more tannins to be able to handle spending 12 months in oak barrels. Once fermentation is finished and even before the second fermentation, the wines will be put into 225 and 500-litre barrels for a year. Because we don’t want an overly marked wood taste, we won’t use new barrels but those that have already been used once or twice. The wine, in the barrels, will experience very slow oxidation which will round out the tannins to make them less drying and add a range of complementary aromas from the wood: toasted bread, vanilla. After 12 months, each barrel will be tasted to keep only the best, then it’s off to bottling. The bottles, in which the wine will wait at least another year, will then find their way to your table.
It’s long and complex, these harvests and vinifications: there are many choices to make, many crucial decisions… But what a joy when the wine reaches the expected level, when a grape has transformed from a promise into a jewel.
That’s the magic of the harvest. 🍇✨