How red Bordeaux is made, picking to bottle

Two cellars, one method

Château de Camensac (opens in a new tab), in the Haut-Médoc (opens in a new tab), is a fifth growth (the 5th rank) of the Classification of 1855 (opens in a new tab). Château Canon La Gaffelière (opens in a new tab) is a Premier Grand Cru Classé B, in the top rank of Saint-Émilion (opens in a new tab)’s classification. They make red Bordeaux the same basic way. Their choices differ in detail and agree in shape.

Step	Château de Camensac	Château Canon La Gaffelière
Harvest	By hand, plot by plot, the plots divided by grape, vine age, and soil	By hand, in small crates
Sorting	In the vineyard, then on a sorting table at the cellar	2 times, before and after destemming
Crushing	Destemmed and crushed	Destemmed, not crushed
Fermentation and maceration	About 6 days at 28 °C (82 °F), then about 3 weeks on the skins	28 to 35 days in temperature-controlled wooden vats
Extraction	Pumping over and punching down, daily	Pneumatic punching down
Malolactic	In barrel	In barrel
Élevage	14 to 18 months, 60% new French oak	15 to 18 months on fine lees, up to 80% new oak
Fining	Egg whites	Fined and filtered only if the vintage needs it

The vat sets the color

Sorting comes first because nothing later can remove a bad grape. Then the berries are destemmed and, at many estates, gently crushed so the juice meets the skins. Yeasts turn the sugar into alcohol, and the real work is extraction. Color, tannin, and aroma come from the skins, drawn out by pumping the juice over the cap of skins, by punching the cap down, or by draining the vat and returning the juice.

Each plot and each grape goes into its own vat, so the cellar ends the harvest holding many separate small wines. When the maceration is over, the free-run wine is drawn off and the skins are pressed. The estate keeps the press wine separate and decides later whether it belongs in the blend.

The blend is a tasting decision

Malolactic fermentation follows, a second, softening fermentation: lactic acid bacteria turn the sharp malic acid into the softer lactic acid. The top estates often run it in barrel, as both Camensac and Canon La Gaffelière do.

The Bordeaux cahier des charges, the appellation’s rulebook, has 2 things to say here. Enrichment (adding sugar or concentrating the must to raise the alcohol) is allowed within its limits, and a red Bordeaux may not exceed 13.5% total alcohol after it. Malolactic fermentation is compulsory for red Bordeaux, claret excepted, and the wine must hold less than 0.3 grams of malic acid a liter when it is bottled.

Then comes the blend, the assemblage. An estate can fix the blend soon after fermentation and age it whole, or age each variety separately and blend later. Either way it is a tasting decision: the best lots make the grand vin, the next the second wine, and at some estates a third.

Élevage, the aging before bottling, is the long part. The Bordeaux barrel is the barrique, about 225 liters; 4 of them make a tonneau of about 900 liters, the old trade measure. The share of new oak is the estate’s choice. Camensac uses 60% for its grand vin; Canon La Gaffelière up to 80% in some years and 40% in 2023; Margaux (opens in a new tab) du Château Margaux (opens in a new tab), the third wine of Château Margaux, about 25%.

Along the way the barrels are topped up, and the wine is racked regularly: drawn off its lees (the spent yeast) into clean barrels.

The law sets a floor

Before bottling the wine may be fined, traditionally with egg whites, which clarify it, and it may be filtered. Canon La Gaffelière does both only if the vintage needs it.

The appellation sets the minimum. A red Bordeaux may be sold from January 15 after the harvest, a red Bordeaux Supérieur from July 1. Both estates go well beyond that floor, with 14 to 18 months in barrel before the bottling line. Every step after the vat is a decision about which lots to keep. The craft is in the choosing.