Discover the different news of the Château Le Châtelet, vineyards in Aquitaine.
THE WIT
Château Le Châtelet innovates :
A new packaging in a 10cl glass tube…the volume of a glass of wine.
What is the WIT ?
The WIT is a glass tube which allows everyone to taste and to discover spirits and wine.
This glass tube offers a more qualitative drink which seduces as well specialists as recreational wine-lovers. The WIT (Wine In Tube) is a patented tube, silk-screen printed glass, sealed with crimped screw-caps. This 10 cl tube has been created in collaboration with two main partners : INRA from Montpellier (National Institute of Agronomic Research) and “Arts et Métiers” school from Paris. The target of the WIT is to keep the wine’s organoleptic characteristics with a packaging preventing the oxidation of the wine. This packaging is made under purified atmosphere, on a dedicated bottling line.
The WIT was thought for glass-based consumption : a “glass of wine” of a new kind.
It spreads the dynamical image of the “Château Le Châtelet”. We have been invited for the product launch, on “Salon des Entrepreneurs” (Managers Fair) the 3rd and 4th of February in Paris. This innovation has been highlighted by visitors, VIPs and other participants.
While it is not always possible –or reasonable- to open a full-size bottle of prestigious wine, the WIT is THE innovative and original solution to enable you the pleasure of sipping a “Grand Cru”
Can we trust the WIT ?
Of course. According to the oeunologists, the closing system through an aluminium screwed cap is one of the best wine protection against oxydation during ageing period. The glass material is totally airproof. The WIT is doubtless the ideal format for an attractive tasting, with a sense of security and serenity.
The WIT is available as single tube or 3 tubes set. A further customisation with own company silk-screen printed logo is possible following a minimum order quantity.
To kick-off this operation, the 2006 vintage of the Château Le Châtelet is the first one to be “WITted”. In the next future, further vintages will follow, providing interested customers an assorted set for gifts or hedonistic pleasure.
The Château Le Châtelet
Discover the new vintage of the Château Le Châtelet…
Simply named "Le Châtelet", an invitation to hedonistic pleasure.
The vintage has been designed to extract the very essence of our exceptional terroir.
We have selected 3 representative plots of our vineyard :
A plot made of « Merlot » grapes on clay ground
A plot made of « Merlot » grapes on limestone ground
A plot of « Cabernet franc » grapes on limestone ground
These three different plots are farmed from the pruning of the grapes in winter. We reduce the numbers of buds to three on each part of the grape. On the same way, we remove the leaves from the vine very early on both side. We keep maximum six bunches of grape per vine.
The production is self-limited to 30 hl/ha maximum.
The grape-harvesting is exclusively hand-made and it is taken very fastly to the cellar to avoid oxydation. Once in the cellar, every bunch of vine is selected seed by seed, by 8 persons.
The great oenological innovation of the vintage is the wine-making process.
The selected grapes are directly dispatched to wine-making french oak barrels changed every year contrary to other vintages where the grapes are dispatched to wine vat. The barrels have a capacity of 225 to 400 litters.
The barrels are mounted on wheel-equiped supports for the grapes to rotate every day, for the maceration of the grapes.
With this particular process, the integrity of the fruit is respected. This process doesn’t contain mechanical actions, the grapes are not manipulated. The aromatic potential of the grapes is totally kept.
During the five weeks wine-making stage, the grapes in barrels are hand-rotated every 8 hours (3 times a day).
Once the alcoholic fermentation over, we proceed to the flowing of the grapes (the drops juice) to smaller barrels. Every small barrel is completed with its own squeezed juice.
The malolactic fermentation takes place in these small barrels. Every week, the barrels rotate for the lees to be suspended and for the wine to become more complex and fruity. The aroma in the mouth is much more intensified, so the pleasure.
When the malolactic fermentation is finished, the wine is racked to remove the biggest lees and to get an ageing on thin lees. The rotation of the barrels is continuing until April.
The ageing lasts on a 20 months period before bottling. During this period, the grapes are slightly filtered (20 microns).
The first vintage which benefits from this process is the 2007 vintage, voluntarily self-limited to 100 boxes.
This vintage is considered as a real success by professionals and wine-lovers while the tastings we organised.
All this work and these innovations have not been made in vain.
We are highly persuaded of this optimal wine-making process and today we are very motivated by the results obtained and congratulations.
The annual production for the next vintages are voluntarily self-limited to 200 boxes.
A great new wine is born !
