ontauriol
has an exceptional terroir : terraces made up of interbedded sand and pebble
layers; some plots and hilltops rich with gravel and red clay which form unfertile,
dry soils and benefit from natural drainage, making them particularly well-adapted
for the production of concentrated wine.
The winery has a capacity of 5,000hl in temperature-controlled,
stainless steel vats and an air-conditioned barrel cellar with over 220 barrels
and four oak tanks with a 50hl capacity.
It is equipped with micro oxygenation control points used for ageing both
in vat and in barrel. But without Nicolas GELIS’ desire to harvest small
yields of perfectly ripe grapes, to ferment each variety separately in an
ultramodern winery and then finish off the ageing process in oak barrels and
tanks, such investment would be to no effect.
• To bring out the characteristics
of our terroir, we refuse the use of commercial strains of yeast and let
those already present in the vineyard do their work. Supple and generous
wines will be aged from 12 to 18 months in tanks. Richer, more concentrated
wines are generally destined to be aged in oak barrels for a minimum of
12 months and will then be blended in oak tanks for a further 6 months.
We only use French oak.
The estate owns 88 acres of vines which are divided into two different zones
:
• The plane, covering some 33 acres, with clay soils, produces fine and complex wines.
• The hilltops, covering some 44 acres, with alternate areas of rougets ( gravely clay rich in iron oxides) and deep pebble banks, bring power and depth.
• Plantation density : 2,000 vines per acre
• Distance between
rows : 2.2 m
However, in the first few years after plantation,
we clean cultivate the soil between the young vines. We don’t use
any chemical weed-killers which leave residues in the soil.
