1st Growth
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From pressing the grapes to bottling the wines, vinification and maturing of both wines from the estate and the house are conducted under the purest respect of the local traditions.
Rigorously selected, the production of other estates is always brought to the winery as grapes or musts so that the total control of the winemaking and the ageing can be respected.
Chartron & Trébuchet produces some 500 000 bottles every year.
The firm Chartron & Trébuchet totally controls the making, the ageing and the bottling of the wines. Such a control of all the processes is the spear-head of the Company. Vintage after vintage it guarantees the stability of the quality and gives each bottle the Chartron & Trébuchet " signature ".
The white wines
The white wine is made traditionally. Most of the wines are fermented and aged in barrel, except the villages of the Mâcon area and the regional Appellations which are made partly in stainless steel tanks and partly in barrels.
We rigorously select for each of our appellations the percentage and origin of the new oak barrels we use.
The two preferred origins remain Allier - for a major part - and Vosges. The percentage of new oak barrels varies between 10 to 40%, with an average of 3 years of use for the whole number of barrels.
Alcoholic fermentation lasts about 6 to 8 weeks. It is quickly followed by the malolactic Fermentation, favorized by an optimal cellar temperature of 17°C (62-63°F). During this period the wines are lightly stirred (" bâtonnés "), taking into account their level of evolution.
Once the malolactic fermentation is achieved, the wines are racked. Then starts the maturing process, always in barrels, in cold cellars (12 to 13°C = 53 – 55°F) for a period of 9 to 12 months according to the appellation and the vintage of the wine.
Before bottling a light fining and tangential (cross flow) filtration take place. This has the advantage of enabling the wine to guard the maximum of its organoleptic qualities (compared to the usual filtration in two steps, Kieselghur followed by millipore).
The red wines
Vinification of the red wines is very traditional. The fermentation takes place in open wooden vats, lasting from 12 to 15 days with the control of the temperature, and 2 to 3 " pigeages " per dayIt has usually been argued that barley beer was the alcoholic beverage of choice in ancient Sumer, Did you know...? Queen Pu-abi, who was buried with her servants—who had all been ceremonially poisoned—was accompanied to the afterlife with hundreds of gold and silver goblets, drinking-tubes or straws of lapis lazuli, and a five-liter silver jar, which is thought to have been her daily allotment of barley beer! since the hot, dry climate of southern Iraq makes it difficult to grow grapevines, and the textual evidence for viniculture and winemaking in Mesopotamia is minimal before the 2nd millennium B.C. But based on chemical evidence for wine inside jars that could've been used to transport and serve it, wine was probably already being enjoyed by at least the upper classes in Late Uruk times (ca. 3500-3100 B.C.). Early Dynastic cylinder seals depict the royalty and their entourages drinking beer with tubes/straws from large jars and a second beverage—presumably wine—from hand-held cups.