THE EPISTOLARY CLOS CRYSTAL

Cabernet franc

The terroir of Clos Cristal is composed of a tufa chalk bedrock whose origin comes from the Cretaceous era. In terms of soils, we gradually move from one terroir to another, sandy and clay-limestone soils, which allow us to have a great complexity in terms of structure, balance and aromas in the wine. This complexity is reinforced by the vines that grow along the walls and pass through the walls, offering grapes with very particular characteristics and great maturity. Finally, all these terroirs are surrounded by walls and protected from the north winds by a wood, which offers us a very specific microclimate that can only be found at Clos Cristal.

Plot selection of low-yielding vines in organic farming. Tasting of the berries daily to choose the harvest date. The harvest is manual and carried out by teams of pickers who carry out an initial sorting on the plot. The grapes are picked in whole bunches and transported to the cellar in crates to prevent the bunches from settling and preserve the quality. In the cellar, the grapes are carefully placed on a sorting table before being vatted by gravity. The vinification is carried out without the addition of sulphur and a delicate extraction is carried out with a few pumping over at the beginning of the maceration and then by infusion.

After alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, the grapes are devatted and pressed using a small vertical press. Part of it is put into barrels and another part continues to age in vats. The wine is aged for a year and then bottled without being fined or filtered. The bottles are kept for 2 years in underground freestone galleries away from light and at 12°C throughout the year. In these galleries, the humidity is constant, which offers ideal conditions for the maturation of this wine.