Cellar
5 min read
The barrel is a slow conversation
Large oak, old barrels and very little new wood: how we choose the vessel for each wine.
Written by
Arnaud Vellard
Cellar master
People expect a cellar full of shiny new barrels. Ours is mostly old wood, some of it older than the people who work here, because we want the barrel to let the wine breathe, not to season it.
Choosing the vessel
Each wine has a different conversation with oak. Chardonnay from the chalk goes into large casks that give texture without flavour; Pinot Noir gets a small share of new barrels; Gamay rests in concrete.
How we taste the barrels
Every month we draw a sample from each barrel and taste them side by side.
a barrel that tastes of wood is moved to an older one
a barrel that tastes flat is topped up and moved deeper into the gallery
the best barrels of the year become the next Clos des Lanternes
The goal is simple to say and hard to do: when you open the bottle, you should taste the hill before you taste the cellar.
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