Domaine de Suremain (Burgundy)(3)
By Bertrand Celce 2009-3-3 11:35:34
View on a cask gallery at Domaine de SuremainThe temperature is 4° C in the cask cellar, which is quite cold and caused by the fact that it is partly underground. This ancient cellar has a trap-door opening through the thick vault,
that's where the juice is poured by gravity into the casks. The other way around, they use a small pump for racking. the wines in the casks are resting these days, it is winter, it is cold and there's a pause in the remaining fermentations. They also use some of the big-capacity Grenier wooden-vats (4 or 5 of them) upstairs for the elevage, both for the whites and the reds, which means that they use less casks than they used to in the past. Dominique says that it didn't change that much the style of their wines, it just brought more freshness in the wines. The elevage is quite long, last december for example they racked the 2007 whites but the 2007 reds are still in the casks or wooden-vats, and they should be racked around next march (2009). On average, the elevage of the wines at Domaine de Suremain lasts 15 to 20 months depending of the vintage. Speaking of the 2008 wines which are in this cellar (the 2007 are in a separate cellar), right now they mostly don't even have to top up the casks like they did in autumn, but when the wheather will get warmer and raise the temperature of the cellar, they'll open the small window at the other end, the doors, the trap door, and as a result they will have to sip some wine away because with the temperature raise, the wine will expand out of the cask.
Monthelie 1er Cru Sur la Velle : the Suremain vineyards are below the small construction
From wineterroirs.com
