Château Soutard

In the southeast of France, in the Bordeaux area, you will find the A.O.C. Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé. This denomination spreads across an area of small charming villages. The first of these is Saint-Émilion, a wine hub since the monks arrived in the 8th century. This is where they make Château Soutard, a coupage of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec aged in French oak barrels.

This red wine is made at Château Soutard, the winery of the same name which lies a few metres from the historic city centre. This city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the most important places in the world of viticulture, with its economy and activity dependent on the vineyards that were planted in 56 BC. Historically, this location has been ideal for this purpose because of its limestone soils (on the plateau around the city) and limestone-clay soils (in the hills and valleys of the Dordogne). Right in the heart of this plateau, Château Soutard has 30 hectares of vineyards, with an average age of 35 years, where Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec are grown.

In this sense, Château Soutard is the heir to a tradition, a savoir faire that has been passed down through the centuries, always working in a traditional and manual way. The ultimate goal of maintaining this method of production involves using as few treatments as possible, respecting nature as much as possible and using environmentally friendly practices. Of course this means that the grapes are harvested by hand, in 10-kilo boxes, which spend the night in a cold room to ensure they stay in good condition.

Work continues in the winery, on the vibrating sorting table, where the best bunches will be selected. From there, Château Soutard is destemmed and placed into small vats where it spends five days undergoing pre-fermentation maceration. After that, Château Soutard ferments for 10 days in 60-hectolitre stainless steel and wood conical vats. During this time, pumping over is essential to ensure colour extraction and the continuity of fermentation. Once finished, one half of Château Soutard remains in these tanks, while the other half is transferred to barrels for malolactic fermentation. Finally, the wine is aged for 18 months in French oak barrels from eight different cooperages (60% of which are new each year). The coupage is carried out by Soutard’s management team, who will have the final say on the fate of this emblematic red.