Chateau d’Esclans has got to be one of the few, if not the only winery in the world where rosé is fermented in barriques. Owner Sacha Lichine (in the video) and winemaker Patrick Léon, former chief winemaker at Château Mouton Rothschild, have developed a thorough system where temperature controlled fermentation is done at low temperatures in 600-liter barrels to avoid any excess of wood. As Sacha points out, contact with wood is more intensive in smaller Bordeaux style barrels due to the proportion between surface area and volume of liquid.
What is amazing is that each barrel -- as you can appreciate in the video -- has it's own cooling tube where a constant flow of chilled water keeps the juice at continuous low temperatures between 8°C and 15°C. Fermentation in this form normally take up to three to four months; the slowing down of the process is, according to Sacha, one of the key elements in creating the complexity and freshness of their top cuvee, Garrus.
Check out the video to find out more about this unique form of making rosé, and click here for the tasting report on the wines of Chateau d'Esclans.
-JGAL
