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The harvest
Knowing how long to wait and recognising the optimal time to pick the different grape varieties are part of an ancestral expertise, vital for a good harvest.
Every parcel is thus harvested by hand and sorted on a table to ensure that only the most perfect and healthy fruit is kept.
The new vat house
In 1991, as a pioneer of its kind, Château Branaire-Ducru acquired a modern gravity-fed vat room, eliminating the need to pump out grapes and allowing parcel-by-parcel vinification thanks to its 28 vats (10 vats were added in 2010).
Today, François-Xavier Maroteaux is pursuing this approach with the opening of a new 100% gravity-fed vat room with 65 suspended vats from the 2022 vintage.
After three years of major works, the new suspended vat house at Branaire-Ducru has nearly doubled its number of fermentation vats, increasing from 38 to 75 vats. This new vat house allows for even more meticulous attention at each stage of the winemaking process.
With its 65 suspended vats, it is the first suspended vat house in the Médoc to feature such a high number of vats.
This unique configuration offers the opportunity to ferment each grape quality individually, in order to best express the diversity of Branaire-Ducru’s terroirs.
Step 2
Winemaking
The transformation into wine takes place slowly and calmly inside the vathouse. Checks and adjustments are automatic, but overseen by people.
The fruit from each parcel is processed in tanks of different sizes, and the different varieties are also kept separate, so that each batch is allowed to express its characteristics fully in its own time.
This essential steeping process can last up to three weeks.
Step 3
Blending
Blending, the crucial step where the new vintage is written.
Since 2002, Jean-Dominique Videau has been marrying the different grape varieties with talent and expertise, creating haute couture wines at Branaire-Ducru.
Step 4
Ageing
In the cellar, the wine is aged to reach its purest expression.
The transformation of grape juice into wine is accomplished slowly as it becomes finer, clearer and purer.
The wine is aged in oak barrels where it matures for at least eighteen months. The barrels are made from timber selected in the best French forests. 60% of them are renewed every year.
The harvest is fully bottled at the Château.
