The winemaker on Audacia is the link between vineyards
and the cellar, controlling all aspects of both viticulture
and winemaking. Perfection is reflected in everything
that occurs on Audacia: winter pruning and additional
summer growth limitation means the crop is restricted
to between 7 and 8 tons a hectare. Audacia is compact
enough to ensure each vine gets individual attention,
something larger operations struggle with.
Just after the grapes begin to change colour, from
green to black (in a process called veraison), the
team go through all the vineyards doing a vendange
vert – or green harvest. This entails cutting
excess bunches of grapes from the vine in order to
concentrate the flavours in the remaining bunches.
It's also a good way of getting rid of any poor grape
bunches and ensuring that only the best grapes make
it into the cellar.
Once ripe, grapes are harvested into individual lug
boxes which are then decanted into 500kg bins. When
two of these half ton bins are full, they are swiftly
transported to the cellar which is just 700m away from
the furthest vineyard. This practice means the grapes
are kept cool, rather than left outside to bake in
the warming sun, vulnerable to the growth of any potential
spoilage organisms.
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Harvesting of the grapes |
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Production in 2011 ran to between 120 and 130 tons of grapes,
translating into roughly 18 400 cases (six bottles) of wine.
A custom-built sorting table staffed by eagle-eyed workers
ensure that no leaves, stems or even stray snails made it
into any of the tanks!
Each different block of grapes are vinified separately in
small 7 ton stainless steel tanks. Experiments are done with
a range of different yeasts in an attempt to get the best
result for each particular vineyard block or grape variety.
After the initial alcoholic fermentation a preliminary blending
is done, based on the quality of the different batches which
the winemaker has at his disposal. Some of the wines then
go into cement tanks with oak staves to spend time obtaining
wood character, while those destined for the Audacia flagship
range go into brand new 300 litre French oak barrels. Depending
on the style desired – and the wine's reaction to the
wooding regime – the barrel maturation takes between
12 and 18 months.
After bottling, there is a further 12 to 24 month maturation
period before the Audacia wine is released onto the market.
This final step of bottle maturation ensures that the consumer
can be confident of a deliciously smooth red wine at the
time of purchase, which will not only drink well, but mature
further too. |
