The process of maturation of the wine begins in the month of November, when the wine if put into barrels, the traditional barriques of the Bordeaux region (capacity of 225 litres).

All of the wine ages inside vessels made of French oak. The batches of wine are tasted beforehand to help decide the proportion of new barrels to old ones, to balance the potential of the wine. This process concerns avoiding masking the flavour natural to the grapes from this estate by the strong flavour from the wood. The flavours of the wood and of the fruit must be in balance. All though this process, tasting is our guide, and it is through our palates that we can become best involved in the wine. Just as with the vinification process, no step is carried out robotically.

The barrels furnish the wine with a very gentle micro-oxygenation which is of great benefit to it. Apart from this, the wine begins to clarify much quicker when in a smaller container, meaning there is no need to filter at the end of the maturation process.

Various operations are carried out during the maturation:

The process of racking takes place twice during the maturation, where the wine is separated from the deposit which has formed above the wine i.e. the lies. As well as this, a great deal of carbon dioxide is produced during the early stages of maturation, and this is removed during this process. Racking also allows, during the ageing process, for a small quantity of oxygen to be introduced with the wine, which improves the ageing.

The topping-up of barrels is also very important, as this allows the replenishment of wine which has evaporated naturally from the wine, as well as preventing excess oxidation which could damage the wine.

The process of adding a fining agent into the wine which is made from egg white is another important process. This enables to the wine to clarify and then to become biologically stable. The quantity of the egg white needed is determined by tasting.

Having matured for between and 12 and 15 months, the tasting of each of the batches allows us to consider the blending of the wine – to create a first wine, Château Belles-Graves and a second, Terasses de Belles-Graves, which is lighter and created to be consumed when still relatively young.

Once the blending has finished, the wine is ready to be bottled. This is the last oenological process, and it fixes irreversibly the state of the wine. For this process, we hire an assembly line which we place directly in the storage area. This allows to package our wines ourselves, to guarantee the quality.

Château BELLES-GRAVES - 33500 Néac - Tél. + 33 (0) 557 510 961 - Fax + 33 (0) 557 510 141 - Email : x.piton@belles-graves.com

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