A thoughtful restoration
The restoration of the winery required reflection.
The premise? Submit the 18th century building to the conditions of modern production while preserving the integrity of the ancient elements.
Cécile wanted to keep the exterior, with the wrinkles and patina of old age while the concrete and wood interior is what this 21st century can offer more elegant and functional.
Here, no fantasy conversion or dream of an agrarian summer night. The winemaker lives with his time, the boots planted in the 21st century.
There is a constant temperature of around 30 degrees; the barrels containing the wine vinegars are lined up in three rows, half-filled so that the oxygen loaded with acetic bacteria can do their job – it is this sour smell that strikes when one enters the cellar -; they are not sealed as are the wine barrels, but covered with a white veil, as for a ceremony whose ritual is mysterious.
In this sense, the current development of the winery is a success.
The vinegars of white and red wines, all mono-varietals, all vintage, are raised in traditional barrels on the ground floor.
The Balsamic Floor
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Closer to the light wood frame, the barrels where the balsamics are prepared are stored in descending order, each bringing the aroma specific to the wood from which it was made – oak, acacia, chestnut, cherry – and corresponding to an additional step in the concentration process. So many small chrysalises from which will come the precious juices.
Manual production
There is in the cellar as a competition between the two levels. On the one hand, the astringent taste of vinegars; on the other, the soothing one, softening, like an air laden with a thousand scents, balsamic. It is quite a philosophy, it even seems like an art, to combine these opposing qualities.
Once elaborated, fine and ready, they all iron through the hands of the winemaker for bottling, returning to the master one last time, who numbers the bottle, like a creation. We talk about handicrafts, nothing in production is automated.
