Pruning.

Last monday we started the new season of pruning. It will last till late march.

Why starting so late ? Just because the sap of the vine is moving from the branch to the roots, where it will be stocked. If we prune too early, all the sap will not have time to move down and the vine should loose some pricious reserve. So, every year, we wait for the end of automn to start pruning, it help vine to support winter and to make the start easier in sping.

The goals of pruning are :

-Selecting the best branches to carry the grapes.

-Avoiding to have too much vegetation on the same area, by cutting branches and unfertile buds.

-Regulating the quantity of grapes and so the dilution of quality.

-Preparing the harvest of next year but also the only of the year after next year.

-Cuting old branches to have so young ones.

Ratafia

We talked to you about our ratafia a few months ago when we bottled it. It's now ready to be tasted.

The ratafia, it's must (grape juice) taken during pressing (at the end of the cuvée in our case) that is mutated with alcohol. This is to say that we stop the alcoholic fermentation (transformation of the contained sugars in the juice into alcohol) by addition of alcohol (secret) to reach 18 degrees. At this point, the sugars in the juice will not turn in alcohol and stay as "natural sugar taste".

During the 2009 harvest, we selected Pinot Noir and Chardonnay juice that we aged in wood barel for a half and the other half in glass canisters.

Now, we offer a blend of 50% Pinot Noir aged in glass canisters and 50% Chardonnay aged in oak barrels.

Have a nice tasting...

Tasting notes on an American and Belgium website.

The internet website named Champagnifique.be, who is made by a team of sommeliers and champagne lovers from Belgium and the United States just taste our cuvées carte Or vintage 2006, Grand Cru blend vintage 2006 and Rosé.


http://www.champagnifique.be/wordpress/?cat=665

The comments are good, we can say very good. Thank you Ed and Michiel to like our Champagne.

Oak barrel from the forest of Verzy.

We gave few evidence in recent weekks. It's today official, a magnificent oak barrel comes to take place in our winery.

Selected when he was still "standing  on it's roots" by Jérome Viart from the Tonnellerie Artisanale de Champagne (the only one on the Champagne Area) this oak comes from the forest of Verzy. In love with terroir, we couldn't pass up such a nice opportunity. Imagine that the tree we used to manufacture our barrel grow on the same terroir as our vines, the terroir our familly in living one since so many generations. The loop is closed.

After more than 36 months of drying, the "merrains" were shapped in "douelle" and put together loke a nice skirt. We asked for a soft and slow heating (180°C for 1h30) in order to cook the wod in depth but also gently so that the aromas will be delicate and subtile.Once heated, the "douelles" have been bent and rimmed to give birth to a beautiful barrel.

The laser marking finishes the work and pays tribute to the fisrt generations of the Champagne Henriet Bazin which already used such barrel in the past.

See you soon for the next step.