Harvesting
by hand
During the harvest, the challenge is to pick the grapes at the right time. Observation and detailed knowledge of our plots, together with measurements and analyses of ripeness, enable us to decide on the right day for harvesting.
The proximity of our plots means that we can bring the freshest grapes back to the winery. We harvest by hand in buckets and then in racks, so there’s no need to crush the bunches, which are sorted directly in the vineyard.
Our working space offers us numerous possibilities for direct pressing with or without settling or maceration.
Native yeasts
We work to ensure the life and health of our vines. This energetic environment allows us to produce a healthy, dynamic wine. The week before the harvest, we pick beautiful bunches of grapes from all over the estate, as we move around the plots. The grapes are destemmed and vatted, fresh. Fermentation starts spontaneously and after a few days, we draw off the fermenting grape juice: this is the leaven.
Like a baker, we take a portion of this boiling juice each day to seed our vats. The leaven is supplemented with fresh juice to maintain and restart the fermentation process.
This artisan choice is motivated by the desire to make the most of our terroir.
Cellars
Our winery is in the Nantes tradition: most of the vats are underground. Their capacity ranges from 23 hL to 95 hL. The floor is dotted with hatches giving access to the concrete vats, which have tiled or glazed walls. This configuration frees up a great deal of space, enabling the wine to be matured on its lees in the most appropriate and high-quality way.
600-litre demi-muids are used for vinification and ageing of our Folle Blanche and red wine macerations.
Our 500-litre stoneware jars, white because they are rich in Limoges kaolin, are used for our exceptional cuvées, for which micro-oxygenation throughout the maturing process is essential.
Finally, the winery is completed by stainless steel and concrete vats, modern and perfect for the vinification and ageing of our red wines.
Ageing
Once fermentation is complete, we close the vats and let time do its work. The yeasts have finished their work and slowly settle to the bottom to form the lees. We sometimes stir the lees in a vat during the winter, in other words, put the lees back into suspension to enrich the wine.
Throughout the ageing process, which lasts from 6 months to over 2 years, we intervene regularly … by tasting! It’s our way of keeping a close eye on our wines and getting to know them well.
Bottling
From the spring following the harvest, the wines are bottled one after the other. When the tasting confirms it, and sometimes after long discussions and reflections on the blends, we decide on the bottling date.
This crucial stage is the final act in our work as artisan winemakers. With the greatest respect for the wine, bottling takes place on the fruit day or the flower day, under inert gas and in good spirits!
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Every time we meet you, we share some news about the estate and its development. On a weekly basis, we communicate on social networks, aiming to deliver content that allows readers to understand a little more about the story behind each bottle of wine.
🇫🇷 Tels Keraban, le Tétu, profil de caractère de Jules Verne, nous sommes venus à bout de notre idée : produire un grand vin rouge de garde à Vertou 🍷.
Partis d`une friche viticole en 2019, c`est un écosystème puissant que nous avons bâti avec sur une parcelle plein sud, sur un sol de schiste, avec 100 arbres, 10 000 ceps, un drainage parfait par couvert végétal, un léger travail du sol au cheval...
Rien pour nous faciliter la tâche : des arbres et des ceps qui ne rentrent dans aucune case du casier viticole du douanier, une densité et une organisation qui sort des cahiers des charges d`appellation, ...
Nous avons tenu tête et sommes aussi fiers que Keraban le têtu !
1000 bouteilles uniquement... soyez agile et rusé comme Keraban, appelez pour réserver !
🇺🇸 Like Keraban, the Tétu, Jules Verne`s character profile, we have come to the end of our idea: to produce a great red wine for ageing in Vertou 🍷.
Starting out on a winegrowing wasteland in 2019, we built a powerful ecosystem on a south-facing plot of schist soil, with 100 trees, 10,000 vines, perfect drainage by plant cover, light tillage with horses...
There was nothing to make our task easier: trees and vines that didn`t fit into any of the boxes in the customs officer`s vineyard register, a density and organization that went beyond the appellation specifications...
We stood our ground and are as proud as Keraban the stubborn!
1000 bottles only... be nimble and cunning like Keraban, call to reserve!
#lestroistois #vertou #winemaker #vigneronindependant #domaineviticole #nantes #vigneron #nantes #agroecologie #agricultureresponsable
🇫🇷 Soussolage, émiettement : Voilà le travail de surface que l`on pratique pour préparer nos sols en évitant le labour.
La future plantation de la Ville au Blanc est prévue au Printemps 2025 avec de nouveaux cépages🌱.
🇺🇸 Subsoiling, ploughing, crumbling: This is the surface work we do to prepare our soils, avoiding ploughing.
The future planting of Ville au Blanc is scheduled for Spring 2025 with new varietals🌱.
#lestroistois #vertou #winemaker #vigneronindependant #nantes #agroecologie #vitiforesterie #villeaublanc #agricultureresponsable
🇫🇷 Sans boire la coupe jusqu`à la lie, cette dernière nous occupe cependant ces derniers temps : on soutire notre RedHot 2024 pour retirer la lie le temps de l`élevage 🍇.
En revanche, pour Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2024, on remet la lie en suspension dans le vin pour apporter matière et `gras` pendant l`élevage.
🇺🇸 Without drinking the cup to the dregs, the latter has been keeping us busy of late: we rack our RedHot 2024 to remove the dregs for the duration of the ageing process.
On the other hand, for Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2024, we put the lees back into suspension in the wine to add substance and `fatness` during ageing.
#lestroistoits #vertou #vignoblenantais #winelover #winemaker #wine #muscadet #melondebourgogne #muscadet #sevreetmaine #VinsdeNantes
🇫🇷 Où l`on parle de nous en bûcherons, ce qui ne déplaît pas aux coureurs des bois que nous fûmes !
Un article très justement écrit par Alexandre Abellan pour le magazine @vitisphere.
Lire l`article 👉 (lien en bio)
🇺🇸 Where they talk about us as lumberjacks, which doesn`t displease the coureurs des bois that we once were!
An article written by Alexandre Abellan for Vitisphère magazine.
#lestroistois #vertou #winemaker #vigneronindependant #domaineviticole #nantes #vigneron #nantes
🇫🇷 Moment suspendu privilégié au restaurant @bairoz_nantes au cours duquel nous observons Estelle et Jérôme dans leur univers de gastronomie de haut vol 🍴.
Ce sont 20 convives curieux et intéressés qui s`étaient inscrits pour cette E-Paulée, qui sont repartis heureux !
🇺🇸 A privileged moment of suspension at the Bairoz restaurant, during which we observe Estelle and Jérôme in their world of high-flying gastronomy.
20 curious and interested guests signed up for this E-Paulée and left happy!
#lestroistois #winemaker #vigneronindependant #wine #vin #nantes #vigneronindependant #naturalwine #vinsnaturels #gastronomie #ilovemuscadet #vinsdenantes
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