Our expertise

From expertise to excellence in viticulture

A great wine is made in the vineyard

 

The estate’s team of winemakers has a single objective: to put their expertise and know-how at the service of Château des Rêves, to obtain, first and foremost, quality grapes. Because a great wine is made in the vineyard.

The highest quality cultivation techniques are used, while preserving the environment, the ecological balance and the durability of the terroir.

One example is leaf thinning. This practice consists of removing all or part of the old leaves from the fruit-bearing zone at the end of summer, to improve berry ripening. This allows the bunches to benefit from maximum sunlight and aeration.

We also carry out thinning pruning. The aim of thinning is to regulate the number of bunches of grapes per vine and to limit clustering, thus ensuring optimal grape ripeness.

Cultivation methods combining tradition and modernity

 

  • The grape harvest is an equal opportunity
    Harvesting is another decisive stage. At Château des Rêves, the grapes are harvested by hand from crates, passing through a sorting table.
  •  Densimetric bath sorting. When the harvest is received in the winery, it is sorted by density to select the best berries, intact and ripe, and to eliminate plant debris and damaged grapes. The berries are then sent to temperature-controlled fermentation tanks, where the best expression of the grape is sought.
  • Vinification. Vinification takes a month, during which the grapes become wine. It begins with a pre-fermentation maceration phase lasting 4 to 5 days, necessary to obtain a beautiful color, then alcoholic fermentation, which lasts around ten days, transforms the sugar into wine, and finally a post-fermentation maceration phase builds the wine for ageing. The wine is then ready to be poured into barrels.
  • Ageing. This lasts from 12 to 18 months, depending on the vintage, for a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru. Aging in French oak barrels, at least 33% of which are new each year, will give the wine its tannin and characteristic empyreumatic notes of roasting, vanilla, spices…
  • Blending. At the end of the ageing process, the wine is blended by the Château des Rêves management team, in the presence of our oenologist. This is a major step in shaping a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru that reveals all the nuances of its terroir. A round, warm, supple, shimmering wine, ready to drink after 4 to 5 years, with an ageing potential of a good ten years.