“LES ARGILLÉRES” are trerra rossa soils that are red clays over limestone which are particularly well adapted for excellent Merlot.

We keep the vineyard vigour moderately high and pick early based entirely on fruit flavour.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is on 420a rootstocks the Merlot is 181 on Riperia roots.

High-density plantations 7500 vines par hectare at 0,7x1,90m for the competition aspect. Canopy management is simple with no leaf plucking; just two light summer trims 20 cm wider than normal to keep the microclimate cooler. Crop thinning took place after flowering (40% was dropped to the ground)

Our winemaking philosophy for the coté Sud is minimal handling and maximising fruit character expression. The fruit is machine harvested early in the morning to enter cool grapes 8-12°C.   Gentle processing with no crushing only desteming gives us a touch of ‘Cab Mac' character. The grapes cold soak as long as possible; we inoculate with EC118 before the wild micro flora start taking over. The must is fermented in swimming pools 1m meter high by 3m in diameter open fermenters. To get a good start the fermentations are heated to 28°C and plunged 8 times a daily with the frequency tapering off towards the end of ferment. Skins are scooped off the top of the fermenters into our Pera 40 airbag press where the initial free run full of solids and the last pressings are separated. The wine finishes the last 3°Bé of alcoholic ferment in barriques were it stays, to do eventually the MLF. The wines are left on lees until the final blend We use a variety of coopers from Burgundy the aim is to put half the wine into 500lits and reduce the barrel capacity by half. Fining is done with 3-4 fresh egg whites before bottling

In barriques of 225 lits for 6 months

This wine has a very deep intense colour, nearly ink due to the excellent ripeness of the grapes. - The nose exodus warm aromas of confit black currants and strawberries. -In the mouth opens up ample to balanced classy tannins and finishes with a return of fruit

Red meats, Magret of duck, Pasta, Dry Cheese i.e. Parmesan.

Three to seven years