To the cellar
Red wines
The harvest
The grapes are harvested by hand in small 15 kg boxes. They are then taken to the vat house where they are carefully sorted. Depending on the vintage, some of the grapes are vinified as whole bunches, while the rest are de-stemmed to complete the vat. The vinification can begin!
Winemaking
It is quite similar for all the wines: cold pre-fermentation maceration, light punching of the cap and pumping over, natural alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts, temperature control and density during the entire vatting period.
Breeding
The wines are then aged for a period that can vary from 16 to 20 months before bottling.
During this period of maturation, the interventions on the wine are minimal. They can be summarised as follows
– Weekly topping up of the barrels,
– Regular tastings of the wines to check their quality,
– Laboratory analyses and adjustments (SO2 levels, malolactic fermentation, etc.).
The bottling process
At the end of the maturing process, the wines are bottled by the team at the estate.
White wines
The harvest
The Chardonnays are harvested like the Pinots, by hand, in small 15 kg boxes. They are taken to the vat house and sorted before being loaded into the press. The Domaine Jean Fournier favours a long and progressive pressing of whole grapes, partially crushed.
Winemaking
The juice is then transferred to stainless steel tanks. After a light settling they are put into barrels.
The alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts and the beginning of the maturing process are without sulphur. Only a light sulphiting is carried out after the malolactic fermentation.
Maturing and bottling
As with the red wines, the ageing period may vary according to the cuvée and the interventions on the wine are minimal. The wines are then bottled by the estate’s team, just like the reds.
