Wine Tourism – Wine tasting – Wine sales

THE WINE CAVE:

Winemaking : Each harvest is unique, different from the previous in term of ripeness, degree of acidity and degree of alcohol. It is imperative to choose correctly the right time for harvesting

The harvest is by handpicking and enables the establishment of a waste sorting (sorting of grapes and selection of ripe grapes, removal of roots). Essential step if there is one, the harvest enables each winemaker to express his talent and expertise. A schedule of harvest is defined depending on grape varieties and their alcool content and maturity. Also each plot got its specificity (sunlight, exposure, etc …). Never forget that the grape is a fruit, and the fruit have to be picked up at maturity, as the room for maneuver is short and do not miss the right moment. Everything depends of course the style of wine that the winemaker wants.

Winemaking (Red Grapes varieties): At Domaine de Condorcet, the goal is to harvest a mature grape (and thus avoid the over ripening of berries), for elegant and fine wines while retaining some power necessary for the identity of a Châteauneuf du Pape. For red wines, we partially éraflons our harvest depending on the vintage. For this operation we would win with finesse and allows us to produce wines that let appreciate faster.

The alcoholic fermentation time lasts about 21 days in concrete tanks with epoxy resin coating. We use the technique of load shedding (two per day on average), which operation is to gently extract the color and tannins found in grape skins (the tank is completely removed of its wort to obtain a light pressing berries under their own weight and then return it over the solid part that floats above the wort called the hat so that it bathes for few hours.) 

Aging: in barrels for 12 months.

Wine Making (White Grapes varieties) : White grapes are picked early in the morning and will then be paid into a pneumatic press. Thereof by a light pressing by using an inflated membrane compressed with air will help a soft extraction of clear juice. The cooled juice to 54°F would then be sent in an aluminum vessel into which it will operate a fermentation at low slow and steady temperature of 4 to 6 weeks.