Domaine Drouin

Grape growing:

Very manual labor: 3 people full time (the two of us plus a permanent employee); 3 seasonal workers during the 2 months of summer)

• hard pruning, leaving 8 to 10 buds on the cane.
• tilling is done in winter, spring and summer to generate deep roots to get down to the richness of the subsoil.
• crown suckering is done in the spring to eliminate excess grapes.
• vine leafing is done in the summer to aerate the vine stock and allow for optimum sun lighting, taking care not to touch the main leaves to aid photosynthesis. (less leafing is done during especially dry or hot summers to avoid burns).
• no insecticides are used. herbicides are used very sparingly.
• summer treatments are done from April to July regularly, but moderately, based on the health of the vines.

Harvests:

Harvesting is done manually after checking the maturity, acidity and pH of grapes from each parcel.
Harvesting takes about 10 days.

Winemaking and maturing:

• grapes are pressed slowly.
• wine is racked for 12 to 18 hours in vats.
• enamel casks and vats are filled by gravity.
• alcoholic and malolactic fermentation takes place in casks.
• wine is matured on fine lees for 8 to 14 months depending on the cuvees.
• wine is stirred regularly (about once a week until December, then once every two weeks).
• each cuvee is blended one month before bottling, done on the premises.