Saint-Joseph Granit

Selective grape sorting by hand on a vibrating sorting table. Whole bunches of grapes are placed in a pneumatic press, racking of the must after 24 hours and fermentation in tanks.

The vines are planted at the top of southeast-facing hillsides at an altitude of 300m. Sub-Mediterranean, cold winters and hot and dry summers. Rains regularly during the other seasons (approximately 600 to 700 mm per year). Cordon de Royat and single Guyot methods of pruning plus trellising on wires. De-hydrated organic compost (bovine-manure based), treatment with herbal teas, biodynamic preparations, sulphur and Bordeaux mixture to maintain the balance between the vines and the soil. Leaf-thinning, removing laterals, green harvesting. Mechanical ploughing of the soil, alternate rows are left for natural grasses to grow. Hand-picked harvest when grapes are ripe, selective grape picking in the vineyard, the grapes are harvested in buckets then tipped into harvesting bins which can contain up to 50kg of grapes, these bins are then taken to the wine cellar.

At the end of the alcoholic fermentation the volume is put in 500-litre oak barrels, systematic malolactic fermentation followed by a maturing period of 9months (on finelees). Tangential filtration. Bottling took place in July 20