We give our wines the years they need.
Time as a principle
Ripeness can be observed, but not hurried. Between harvest and release, several years often pass here — and those years are part of the work on the wine.
Why a wine needs years.
A suite unfolds through the relationship between its movements; it needs the whole sequence to become whole. It is much the same with a wine: it comes into being over years — in the vineyard, in the cellar and later in the bottle. For us, this time is part of the composition, just as the grapes and the soil are.
Observing ripeness, letting the year take its course.
When we harvest is decided by the physiological ripeness of the grapes. We walk the parcels, taste the berries, check pips and skins, and wait for the point where fruit and structure come together. That can fall later than a calendar would suggest.
Some years give fullness, others austerity. We work with what the year brings and do not smooth it into a uniform picture. Open a Bordeaux too early and you often experience only half of it — how to recognise a wine that is too young, and why ripeness says more than age, you can read in our context texts.
Ageing means waiting until the structure holds.
A wine stays with us in barrel or in the amphora for as long as its structure keeps gaining depth. Between harvest and release, several years often pass — our principle: ready to drink first, then released. This time is part of our responsibility towards what later stands in the glass.
We bring a wine to market only once it holds. When that is, the ripeness in the barrel tells us; a sales date has no bearing on it. We carry the maturing risk of these years before a single bottle leaves the estate.
The fermata.
The hold sign above a note sustains its sound for as long as the music demands. In the same way, we hold our wines back until they can carry themselves.
More on the fermata
A place that gives time.
Patience shapes our wines, and it shapes the place just as much. Our concerts are conceived as encounters; some connections last well beyond the evening. The Fonds aux Conseillans accompanies young musicians over a longer stretch, because development takes time.
The same calm runs through our volumes: we do not increase them in order to grow faster. Depth builds over years, and from that depth grows permanence — in the glass as in the bond with those who accompany our wines through the years.
Read more.
How we decide on ripeness, time and release — to read in our context texts.
“Time is an ingredient, not a cost.”Our benchmark