Chateau l'Ecrin de Couleys, Cuvee JDR, Cabernet Sauvignon, Medoc 2018

14.00%

60 years old

Certified HVE. Heavily focused on biodiversity: re introduction of bee hives, bats, wild plants to attract wildlife that help prevent diseases. Jerome, who’s a technician at Chateau Mouton Rothchild, applies the same winter pruning technique: a specific double Guyot with two drying cones. He focuses on respecting the flow of the sap and will favor keeping the “baguettes” (fruits bearer twig for the upcoming season) and “coursons” (fruits bearer twig for the next season) that are under the branches. Along with a drastic disbudding (only 6 buds averages are kept per vine), this specific technique used by first growth wineries set the stage for high quality, low yield, concentrated grapes. The grass is let grown naturally to optimize the natural aeration of soils and their quality. High Density plantation with 7,500 vines per hectare. At springtime and around the disbudding, Jerome and David process with the “epamprage” (spring pruning to get rid of unnecessary twig and redirect the sap to the grapes). Currently, the first gentle plowing around the vines is done, while still leaving the grass between rows. This maintains the natural stress to incentive the vines to grow their roots deeper, and not shallow. The vines grow and need to be leveled and tied on the wires. Comes next the “echardage” which consists of removing the superficial twigs on the fruit bearer branch to concentrate again the sap flow. This operation and the next one are also done by hand. The last step is the leaves removal to optimize aeration to prevent mildew and facilitate peak ripeness of the grapes. Harvests are fully done by hand. Very small yield for the region: 40 hectoliters per hectare.

Destemmed using scraper with stick for a gentle process. Sorting of grapes via an optical laser machine with air blowing removal system (machine called “Vision”). A crushing roller applies a gentle pressure to finish bursting all berries to prevent any residual sugar during the vinification. Static settling for finning the wine, remove the must, and then pressed vertically in small press. Each juice is separated by grapes, terroirs, and type (free run or pressed juices from musts). This is followed by maceration and alcoholic fermentation, with 3 pumps over a day. The press juices are vinified on the side in small barrels. Depending on how they evolve, they might be reinjected to the free run one. All these steps take about 3 weeks. The malolactic fermentation follows for maximum one month. The wines are now transferred in oak barrels 20% new, 10% in clay amphora, and aged for 12 months. Jerome and David avoid filtering to preserve the aromatics. They choose instead of doing four racking over the 18 months of winemaking. 

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon 55%, Merlot 45%

500 cases

Bordeaux

2018 was an ideal vintage for the Left bank. Winter was cool enough to let the plant rest. Even though 2018 spring was rainy prior to the budburst, this stage and following ones benefited a clean dry weather. The warm and dry summer optimized the maturity of fruits. Harvest started at peak maturity. After vinification, wines revealed to be lush, aromatic, and structured. An excellent vintage. It gave the opportunity to push fermentation even further than usual and bring a fantastic quality and aging potential to an already great estate.

Medoc

Single estate of 4.5 hectares, made of 5 adjacent parcels. The strength of the estate’s terroir, compared to the ones closer to the estuary, is its soil configuration: very high density of Clay and Limestone that runs deep, giving a magnificent amount of nutrients and minerals to have premium wine on par with classified villages. The only down part lies in the fact that being a little further off the estuary, they have a slight higher risk of frost attacks and mildew due to lesser natural aeration. The parcels are “Saint Pierre” (2ha), “Le Treytey” (0.90ha), La Tessoniere (0.60 ha), Le Lescot Cabernet (0.70ha), Le Lescot Merlot (0.30ha).  

2018