Harvest 2022
Choosing the right time to harvest at Château Saint-Maur
The 2022 harvest began around 20 August at Château Saint-Maur Cru Classé.
Every day Patrick Galliano, our vineyard manager and oenologist, Amélie Maître de Chais and Mathieu, our cellarman, taste and analyse the grapes plot by plot. The aim is to determine the optimum harvest date for each plot, based on the grape variety and the climate. physiological maturitywhich gives the balance between sugar (degrees of alcohol) and acidity, as well as the phenolic ripeness determining the quality of the colouring matter and tannins.
At Château Saint-Maur Cru Classé, the harvest takes place at night by the light of headlamps. Protected from the heat in this way, the grapes arrive at a low temperature at the press, which is itself refrigerated, thus preserving all their flavour. organoleptic qualities.
When the bunches of harvested grapes arrive in the cellar,
they will follow a path of initiation that will take them fromsolid state at
liquid state. What an art, so many secrets carefully guarded by our Cellar Masters.
The wine-making process at Château Saint-Maur is a veritable alchemy.
After being gently crushed, the grapes are transported to the presses without ever coming into contact with oxygen, to protect them from oxidation and preserve their pure aromas.
The juice is then moved by gravity to the temperature-controlled stainless steel vat room. After a few days of cold storage, thehe juice of our grapes, a very sweet nectar, will undergo a biochemical transformation under the impetus of yeasts. These micro-organisms relish the sugar, which they break down and transform into alcohol. This process of alcoholic fermentationalthough known for thousands of years, was only scientifically deciphered in 1815!
Alcoholic fermentation is now partly complete. The wines are carefully monitored by the cellar teams, who continue to give them the care they need to prepare them for the next major stage: selection for the blends.
