The sound of people improves when it’s raining
Rouge, Ardèche
50% Grenache Noir 50% Grenache Blanc
This wine was thought as an experiment – more than any other wine we had made until 2020. We made a 5-day long press direct of Grenache Noir. Every day we separated the juice and kept a part. We decided to make a blend of the first and the last day of the press (the rest we saved for another wine). We added some Grenache Blanc as well. This wine is therefore technically a rosé, even though no maceration has taken place we like to call it a red.
I like it when your fingertips slide through my hair
Blanc, Ardèche
100% Viognier
One more time four days long and slow press direct, this time of Viognier from the old vines of Domaine du Mazel. The combination of the way the wine was pressed and the time it spends in barrels, has given the wine a very solid structure of acidity, bitterness as well as an intriguing salty finish. Nothing like the classic, and often more exotic, expression of Viognier.
New Peach on the Block
Rosé, Ardèche
40% Syrah 30% Merlot 10% Cabernet Sauvignon 10% Grenache Noir 10% Cinsault
Assemblage of Syrah 40% and Merlot 30%, but also Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache Noir and Cinsault. All pres direct, but pressed individually, the following fermentation took place in a fiberglass cuve after assemblage. A very fast and therefore short fermentation. We finished harvest the 7th of September and we bottled the rosé the 30th of October 2020, less than 2 months after. Until 2020 we had never experienced a fermentation that fast. No sugar left, no soutirage – we didn’t have time. Peach is back – but not in the usual Peachy-style – this 2020 Peach is in flavors a very expressive rosé with perfumes similar to roses, other warm summer flowers and with a very charming fruity side.
Quand tu balances je tiens au bout du doigt, et je te ramène vers moi
Rouge, Ardèche
40% Carignan 30% Marsanne 30% Sauvignon Blanc
Originally this wine was meant to be white – A blend of Marsanne and Sauvignon Blanc. But the two juices didn’t work well together, so in the end of the harvest, we decided to add some direct pressed Carrigan. It made the wine better, but it didn’t take us exactly all the way to where we wanted to be with this wine. Therefore, we ended up adding a little bit of destemmed grapes of Carignan, to macerate in the already fermenting juice for about 6 weeks. After décuvage this light red juice went into barrels and the following year the wine fermented in demi-muids. Both white juices were pressed direct for 3-4 days.
Les Vignes des Enfants
Rouge, Ardèche
100% Petite Sirah
All the grapes from our little parcel naled Les Vignes des Enfants are Petite Sirah or Serinne. We destemmed them all, filled them in a fiberglass for 15 days of maceration. After décuvage and pressurage of the grapes the wine was filled directly into old barriques and fermented here for 3 years. No soutirage, full fermentation on the lies. Two times topping up during the winter of 2023.
C’était bien hoer soir? Bah.. tu sais..
Rosé, Alsace / Ardèche
50% Cabernet Sauvignon 50% Gewürztraminer
A blend of Gewürztraminer and Cabernet Sauvignon, both pressurage directe, the Cabernet Sauvignon in Ardèche, the Gewürztraminer in Alsace. Later after the harvest the juice types of juice was blended and directly filled into old barriques. All fermentation and later an aging that brought oxidation have taken place in the same barriques, without any soutirage neither topping up, during the 3 years of élevage.
Tout ce qui est beau revient
White, Alsace
100% Gewürztraminer
A wine made of rich and very aromatic Gewürztraminer at harvest time with a beautiful noble rot. We made a direct press of the grapes same day as we harvested them to be able to extract as much of these flavors as possible.
After a few days of oxidation, the juice went into fiberglass cuves to ferment over winter. After a soutirage in the spring of 2021, time just enough to add these yeasty and autolytic flavors that we love so much, the wine went into the cellar where it finished its fermentation and stayed another 3 ½ years in old barrels without topping up.
Gewürztraminer is in general moving slow when it comes to the development of flavors, and it took close to two years of élevage, before the oxidation started to make its mark. But as it always goes with aromatic varieties like Gewürztraminer, once the oxidation arrives, the oxidation takes its place and create together with the other aromas a beautiful balance.
Comme in Double-Vitrage
Rosé, Alsace
40% Pinot Noir 20% Pinot Gris 20% Sylvaner 20%
A harvest blend of all the four different grapes, all of them was destemmed and macerated for 4-5 days together. After maceration the grapes were pressed, and the juice moved directly outside in a fiberglass cuve. Here the wine spent all most a year of fermentation, soutirage in the summer of 2021, and the wine got when moved into the cellar and barriques for another 2 years of élevage. Rosé, but with a little bit of tannins, the floral flavors from muscat and as always in our wines from Alsace, oxidation, due to the time in barriques without topping them up
I fall in love at least three times a day
Rosé, Ardèche
100% Grenache Noir
A wine that in the most expressively way was intended as an experiment. In 2020 we wanted to press some red grapes like we do with our white grapes. Therefor we made a press direct of our Grenache Noir from our vines at Valgrand, we did that for 5 days. Every day we separated the juice, the juice of day one and five became another wine. Day two, three and four we blended and left it to ferment, age and find its balance in barriques. Be course of a late harvest the alcohol became strong, and we decided for that reason to keep the wine in barriques for close to two years. We’re very happy for that decision- it allow the alcohol to be integrated in the light structure and gave us this slightly oxidative rosé. Something we haven’t seen before here in Valvignères and are looking forward to exploring even more.