RED WINE
To improve the quality of our grapes we reduce the yield in our best vineyards through trimming the vines in winter and green harvest (vendange verte) in summer. We harvest manually sometimes revisiting the vineyard several times.
The harvest usually starts at the beginning of October and can stretch into mid-November. During harvesting we carefully separate mouldy and immature grapes from healthy ones. All grapes are destalked.
We vinify our grapes following the traditional fermentation procedure. After about 14 days the young wine will have undergone the primary fermentation and will then be kept in the tank so that the yeast residue sinks. The young wine is then transferred into barriques. This is where the malolactic fermentation takes place: the malic acid is converted into mild lactic acid and the wine increases in body and smoothness.
Our red wines are always vinified in barriques. The base qualities mature in older wood. Depending on the grape variety, the premium qualities will either be completely or partly matured in new barriques. For Pinot Noir wines we use about 30-50% new barrels whereas with Dornfelder or Cabernet Sauvignon up to 100%. This maturing in wood takes between 12 to 30 months and bottling usually takes place in August before the next but one harvest.
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