The Harvest at Château Gigognan
A few weeks ago, we met Loïc Baillet, vineyard manager at Château Gigognan during the grape harvest, to discover all the stages in the winemaking process.
Located in Sorgues in a green setting of more than 100 hectares, Château Gigognan produces red, white and rosé wines. Because of its geography, 1/3 of productions benefit from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, 1/3 from Côtes du Rhône Villages and 1/3 from Côtes du Rhône. The team works every day to produce quality wines while responding to environmental concerns since in recent years, the estate has been producing wines exclusively from organic farming.
To find out more about harvesting and winemaking, we followed Loïc Baillet and his team to discover the different stages until bottling!
First stage: The harvest is one, if not the most important step since each winegrower chooses the time of harvest according to several factors: the climate, the grape varieties of the vine, the maturity of the grape and therefore the degree of sweetness of the grape and therefore the degree of sweetness of the grape which will later determine the degree of alcohol in the wine.
For several weeks, men and women participate in the harvest, starting with the white grapes, starting with the white grapes, to have a fairly fresh wine, to finish with the red which will often have a more tannic taste.
Second step: Destemming, during which time the remaining vine leaves and damaged berries are removed. Here at Château Gigognan, part of it is handmade but a machine also allows this operation to be carried out.
Third step: Pressing, which consists in placing the berries in a tank in which they will be crushed to bring out the juice and other substances necessary to make wine. Now machines do it very well but before grapes were pressed by foot!
Fourth step: Maceration, during this process of a few days, alcoholic fermentation will gradually eliminate the sweetness of the grapes to make way for alcohol thanks to the yeasts naturally present in the berries.
Note that alcoholic fermentation must be done at 12° and 36° for the yeasts to have the expected effect.
During this stage, the residues (seeds, film, pulp, etc.) rise to the surface and form a “pomace cap”. To ensure good aromas and a beautiful color, we press in the grape must so that the juice rises to the surface and mix again, this is called punching down.
For white wine, the berries are also pressed but only the juice is recovered for maceration.
Fifth stage: Devatting is one of the last steps before bottling, it can be done a few days after alcoholic fermentation or about twenty days later depending on the cuvée and the vinification. First, “gout wine” is recovered, then “pressed wine”, which is retained by Marc's hat and which is therefore more tannic.
Sixth step: Aging, which is the last stage of winemaking during which the wine gains in maturity, stabilizes and becomes less acidic: it can take a few weeks or several months depending on the type of wine you want.
Usually, aging takes place in wooden barrels, but also in stainless steel or concrete tanks as is the case at Château Gigognan.
This is not a mandatory step, after clarifying the wine it may be bottled directly after decatting!
Seventh step: Bottling is therefore the last step before being marketed and tasted by the general public and the greatest connoisseurs. Some also choose to let the wine age a little longer in the bottle.
The wine is racked, or filtered to remove the deposit and particles that may have formed during the various previous steps.
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