Definition: Garage wine

These mini- or micro-vintages, made from separately vinified plots, are becoming increasingly common in Bordeaux. They embody a fashion trend that has not gone unnoticed by other producers. Does the success of these "designer" wines herald a change in the tastes of wine-loving consumers? These super selections from specific plots are cuvées of an admirable technical standard, but they are all based on the same principle: extremely ripe fruit, significant extraction, lots of fat and new wood, and excessive prices for good, rare products. It is feasible to produce two to three thousand bottles of these high-end wines. Devoting so much care to a large château producing 400,000 to 500,000 bottles is a real feat. It is necessary to adapt to such a change. In the past, wine lovers bought the wine that was supplied to them. Today, it is necessary to be able to supply them with what they ask for. Producing a garage wine is more than just an exercise in style. Producing a wine of such perfection involves seeking the maximum influence of an exceptional terroir and using the best methods of cultivation, vinification and ageing. It is an extraordinary field of research. Here are the main parameters to be implemented on an exceptional plot of land with a recognised terroir:

Particular care is taken with pruning, leaf removal and green harvesting, so that only 3 to 4 bunches per vine are retained. The grapes are harvested by hand, destemmed by hand and sorted twice by a large team of workers, so that only perfectly ripe and healthy grapes are used. They are transported in small baskets to the vat, where punching down replaces traditional pumping over. No pumps are used. After fermentation, the wine is transferred to new barrels by gravity, without subjecting it to the stress of a pressure pump.

In conclusion, the positive aspect of these micro-vintages is that they encourage the big names to improve, but at the cost of pushing prices up excessively.