We welcomed some of the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience clients to the stunning Domaine Chapelle in Burgundy for a Vinification Experience Day.  This wine-making gift explains all the work in the cellar to make, age, and prepare wines to be ready for bottling.  We get to taste wines that are still in the ageing process, something that winemakers don’t normally share with people outside of the winery.  It’s a real treat to get behind the scenes and learn first-hand.

 

 

After having introduced us to the day Jean-François, the owner of the winery, recounted his family’s history at the winery and the evolution of the Burgundy wine-growing region.

Then in smaller groups, we visited the cellar where Jean-François explained all of the work involved between the harvest and bottling during the fermentation, maceration, and ageing stages to mature the wines in oak barrels.

Myriam, Gourmet Odyssey’s wine expert, then explained how to taste wines using our different senses, and the difficulty in analysing the sensations that we encounter.  She gave us a few tips to better train our nose, and we now know that to do so, we have to poke our nose everywhere!

This theoretical step prepared us for the tasting of wines that are still in the ageing process.  We compared the changes that two different types of barrel can have on the same wine, and noted that there was indeed a big difference!  The new barrels have a bigger impact on the tannins and bring more woody aromas than the barrel that had already aged two wines.

We also tasted the difference that the age of the vines has on the characteristic of the wine.  The Clos des Cornières vineyard, where the vines for the Gourmet Odyssey red wine grow, has different plots within with different aged vines.  The wine form each of these plots is aged separately before being blended, and so were able to compare two ages.  The younger vines which are stronger, give a more structured and concentrated wine, but the older vines bring more finesse.  When blended together they make a more complex wine than either of the two wines alone.

We noted that the wines that are still in their ageing process have not yet reached their optimum balance, hence the importance of maturing the wines to fully develop their expressive qualities.

We ended the morning with an aperitif of Santenay Blanc, accompanied with the famous Burgundy gougères!

We continued the Burgundy specialities with a lunch of parsley ham, Gaston Gérard chicken, and trio chocolate dessert.  We enjoyed the dishes with a 2020 Ladoix, 2019 Santenay Clos des Cornières, and a 2016 Santenay La Comme Premier Cru.

After lunch, we went for a little walk in the vineyard to meet up with our adopted vines and take photos from all angles for the My Vine photo competition.

Before ending this lovely day, we returned to the winery to discover the stages involved to prepare the wines for bottling and how they are then commercialised.  We discussed a little more with Simon and Jean-François and asked many more questions covering topics such as the choice of corks and labels for the bottles.

Many thanks to all of the participants for their good cheer and enthusiasm which helped make the day so special.  We hope that you had a great day with the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience and that we’ll see you again for another day in Burgundy or at one of our other partner vineyards!

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We spent a fantastic week-end at Château de Jonquières in the Terrasses du Larzac wine-making region for a couple of Gourmet Odyssey Vinification Experience Days.  The aim of these interactive wine-making courses is to learn about all the work in the cellar to ferment, age, blend, and prepare the wines for bottling.  There is a lot of work to be done, and many decisions that the winemakers must make along the way, as we were to learn.

 

 

We were accompanied for the day by Charlotte and Clément de Béarn, who represent the 32nd generation of winemakers at Château de Jonquières.  Amazingly, the château has been in the same family for 900 years, and has always been a working château with vines, and in the past, other fruit and cereal crops. Charlotte introduced us to her family history at the winery, and the surrounding terroir that makes up the Terrasses du Larzac wine region. 

We then headed across the courtyard and down into the cellar.  Here we learned how the grapes are received at harvest time, and the different processes involved for the red, white and rosé wines, which grapes are pressed, and which are put directly into the vats having been separated from their stems.

Clément then explained in length the fermentation process that transforms the sugar in the grapes into alcohol, and the work needed during the maceration stage to extract the colour and tannins for the red wines.  We discovered the different types of vats that exist and how Clément uses hot and cold water in jackets or immersion heaters to warm or cool the wine, and so control the speed of fermentation.  During this phase each grape varietal from each vineyard is kept separately in different vats.

Once the wines have finished fermenting, they are transferred to the other end of the cellar to begin the ageing process.  Clément explained the virtues of the different containers used for ageing the wines.  Some are aged in vats, others in oak barrels of differing sizes, and this year they are testing an egg-shaped vat that keeps the lees in continual suspension with the aim of bringing more depth to some of the wines.

We then sat down to the wine tasting workshop to better understand first hand the structure and make up of a wine.  
Clément had organised a series of blind wine tastings so that we could better appreciate the distinct characteristics of different grape varietals and the change in aroma and taste brought about due to the choice of container used to age the wine.

We then started to blend the wines.  Our first blend was made up of 80% Grenache aged in a vat, 10% Carignan aged in an oak barrel, and 10 % Carignan aged in an egg-shaped vat.  We then changed the Grenache for Syrah and compared the two blended wines.  We learnt that the Grenache brings a fruity and soft tannic structure to the wine with some slightly floral aromas, whereas the Syrah dominated blend had a deeper colour, was spicier, and had a longer finish.  Interestingly, the Carignan, which hadn’t been so popular in the first round of tasting, was noted for bringing more freshness through its acidity to both the Grenache and the Syrah blends.  Blending wines is all about finding the right balance to enhance each of the individual grape varietals. 

The wine blending workshop ended with a tasting of a pre-assembled wine that will be used in the final blend of the 2021 Lansade vintage, the wine chosen for the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience. It was a made up in equal measure of Carignan, Syrah and Grenache, and gave us a sneak preview of our wine to come!

It was then time for lunch and to taste the range of the wines that Château de Jonquières produces, starting with the 2020 Lansade white wine for the aperitif, and tasting the 2021 Lansade rosé and 2020 White Label N°5  red with the selection of starters.  We savoured the 2020 Lansade red with the coq au vin main course.  Cheese was paired with the gastronomic 2020 Baronnie white wine, and lunch ended with the 2020 Baronnie red, accompanying the chocolate mousse.

After lunch, we headed out into the vineyard to visit our adopted vines, which are the pride and joy of the winery, and were planted over 80 years ago by Charlotte’s great grandmother.  We took a few minutes to take some photos of our vines and admire their majestically gnarled trunks.

Back at the winery, we returned to the cellar to learn all about bottling.  Clément showed us the machine that fills the wine bottles and puts the corks in.  We spent some time discussing the different options to cork and their advantages and disadvantages.

Clément then showed us the labelling machine that will be used to apply our personalised labels once our wine is ready.
Many thanks to Clément and Charlotte for welcoming us so warmly, and for giving us such a comprehensive insight into the art of wine-making.

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Céline and Stéphane warmly welcomed us to Domaine Stentz-Buecher to learn about all the work in the cellar after the harvest right up until the moment when the wine is bottled, labelled, packaged and ready to be enjoyed!   This organic winery in Alsace is run by the brother and sister duo, and as we would learn from them, there is much more to making wine that you might at first imagine!

 

 

After the introductions and welcome coffee, we made a quick visit to our adopted vines that are located in the Rosenberg vineyard, as it is after all here that the wine starts out.  Without the best quality grapes, it’s very difficult to make a good wine!  We took a few photos of our vines, and Céline explained the different terroir of the surrounding vineyards, a great foundation for some of the wines we would taste later in the day.

Back at the winery, we followed the journey that the grapes take during harvest time.  Stéphane explained how the grapes are pressed for the white wines, and how the pinot noir grapes are separated from their stems and put directly into the vats for the maceration to take place during the alcoholic fermentation phase.
We visited the barrel room to see where the red and white wines that are aged in oak barrels rest.  Stéphane explained the benefits the barrels bring through the micro-oxygenation process, and how it’s important to keep the barrels topped up to replace the angel’s share that is lost to evaporation.

We then made our way into the fermentation hall where the vast majority of the winery’s white wines are stored.  Stéphane talked us through the fermentation phases and explained the differences between the ancient oak casks and the more recent stainless-steel vats.   
He gave us a taste of the 2021 Pinot Gris Rosenberg wine that is still in the ageing process and won’t be ready until later in the year.  It was very interesting to taste, as it’s very unusual to get the chance to taste a wine that hasn’t yet finished.  We then compared it to a wine that is still in the malo-lactic fermentation phase.  Straight away we could see that the second wine was cloudier, had a slightly yeasty smell, and fizzed a little in the mouth.

Stéphane explained how the wines will change during the ageing process, and he passionately explained his vision of wine-making, and drummed home the importance to him of deliberately reducing the quantity of grapes produced to be able to make more concentrated and aromatic wines.  
We then headed out into the courtyard to make the most of the sun, and to start tasting some of the finished wines.   Céline had prepared a blind tasting for us to highlight the difference between grape varietals and the impact that different terroir can have. 

We then sat down to a traditional Alsace lunch of choucroute, local cheeses, and Black Forest gateau, all accompanied with more wines.  By the end of the meal, we had tasted three different Riesling wines including a Riesling Steingrubler Grand Cru, the 2019 vintage of the Pinot Gris Rosenberg wine chosen for the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience, the 2017 Pinot Gris Pfersigberg Grand Cru, a Crémant d’Alsace sparkling wine, two Gewurztraminer wines including the 2019 Hengst Grand Cru, and the Who Am I? wine that is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Riesling.   The variety and range of wines was extraordinary.
In the afternoon, we headed back down into the cellar to learn all about the final stages of the wine-making process to bottle the wines.  Stéphane explained how the wines are filtered to remove any remaining lee particles and showed us the bottling machine that fills and corks the bottles. 

We then moved onto the machine used to label and put the capsules over the tops of the bottles, and the final machine that tapes us the boxes.

The day ended in the wine library where Stéphane and Céline have an impressive collection of their old vintage wines.  Many thanks to all of the participants for helping make it such a fun day, and to the winemakers for opening their doors and talking about their job in such a no-nonsense and frank way.

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