Visiting a Winery in Vouvray

We often take clients to local family run wine estates. One of our favourites is a visit to the caves of Chateau Gaudrelle [link]. Here are some photos from a visit with rather glamorous clients.

Diane, one of the owners of the winery, explains the use of different shaped containers for fermentation (the different shapes cause the liquid inside to circulate in different patterns, giving different levels of contact with the sides, which produces different flavours).

Diane explains that the wine produced in these barrels is not typical of Vouvray, but these days the winery needs to produce something that differentiates it from the 180 other Vouvray producers.

Fermentation airlocks on barrels to allow carbon dioxide to escape during fermentation, but not let oxygen in. The carbon dioxide can bubble out through the water, but oxygen cannot enter.

Tasting a sparkling brut, which they both really liked.

Diane explaining how sparkling Vouvray is made (the same as champagne, but the technique must be called the traditional method in Vouvray, not the champagne method, as we are not in Champagne).

Diane showing the sediment in a sparkling wine bottle before disgorging takes place.

Diane explaining how the sparkling wine bottles are slowly turned and tipped to bring all the sediment into the cap, ready for disgorging.

Diane operating the riddling machine, which will bring the sediment in a thousand bottles at a time down into the cap, after which the bottles with be run through a disgorging machine which takes off the cap, the plug of sediment shoots out, and the disgorging machine tops up the wine level, pushes a cork in and puts on the wire cage called a muselet.

And now for some still wines, ranging from dry to sweet.

In the end, a case of wine was purchased, to be sent to Spain.