At Château du Grand Caumont we work with Patrick Blanchard our wine maker for over thirty years. We practice two main types of winemaking in cellars equipped with concrete vats, stainless steel vats and barrels. Each plot is vinified separately.
We use for each type of grape the vinification which will allow us to obtain the desired result.
For all the old vines of Carignan and a part of the Syrah we choose the full bunch vinification also named « Carbonic maceration ».
Bunches of grapes are hand harvested and the full bunches are placed in shallow vats. The vats are saturated in CO2, individually yeasted and fermented for at least two weeks. The vats are then run off and the fruit lightly pressed. The run off and press juices are then blended to finish alcoholic fermentation and allow malolactic fermentation.
For the young Carignan, part of the Syrah and the Grenache we use traditional vinification for the Vin de Pays. The grapes are machine harvested, transferred to a destemmer and crushed before directing the juice to the vinification vats.
Each vat is yeasted separately. Time in the vat is 14 to 21 days with pumping the must (unfermented grape juice, including pips, skins and stems) from the bottom of the vat over the top of the solid cap, the marc, at least once daily to clean the cap. Towards the end of fermentation, we break up the cap by pushing it down into the fermenting juice and drawing off the juice in order to extract the maximum quality from the raw material. We also use temperature control.
Two of the most beautiful cuvées from Château du Grand Caumont, Cuvée Impatience and Réserve de Laurence are partially aged in oak barrels, always with delicacy and nuance in order to preserve the typical aromas of fruit and spices.
Our new Grand Vin « Capus Monti », a very careful plot selection, created on the magnificent 2015 vintage, is aged 100% in quality fine grained oak barrels for 12 months.
