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VINEYARD & CELLARS
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(Click on your choice to continue)
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Vineyard
In the great area "Champagne", our vineyard stays in the area "Cote des Bar" (BAR sur Aube and BAR sur Seine).
On the gound (argilo-calcaire), the richness of our soil enables us to provide a champagne with high expression.
The exposure of our slopes are South, South-east in order to take best sun to ensure perfectly a sunning and thus to ensure a very interesting degree of wine. The nature of the ground enables us to have a hotter ground because the surface, being covered with pieces of stones. The accumulation of the heat of the day is retransmitted the night and the stone plays the part of heat exchanger between the day and the night.
It is this specification as so looking for by champagne houses : it is our specifical champagne
If you add a slope reaching more than 40 %, we have a very good sunning of the vineyard to provide very good quality grapes : the base of a good champagne.
In a few words and pictures, we introduce ourself the Gouthière's vineyard into 7 following villages.
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Vineyard Gouthière Gérard at Colombé le Sec (click inside the black framed polygone) |
ARSONVAL |
COLOMBE le SEC |
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MONTIER en L'ISLE |
RIZAUCOURT |
SAULCY, en CHAMPAGNE (headquarter) |
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7 villages : ARGENTOLLES, ARSONVAL, COLOMBE LA FOSSE, COLOMBE le SEC, MONTIER en L'ISLE, RIZAUCOURT, SAULCY en CHAMPAGNE
This disadvantage quickly becomes an advantage to occupy itself of the culture of the vine. The vineyard extends on close E 20 km, that enables us to follow the vegetation to more close and to carry out the various spots of the vine growing at the good time with a work of quality. For example, if we had 4 ha out of only one commune, it is true the race especially to carry out training (blocking of the growths of the year). Nature does not await you
Out this functional aspect, emerges another advantage from this situation compared to the climatic conditions. In period of frost, the weather will be perhaps less cold in Arsonval than in Saulcy but nothing is sure. On the other hand in the event of hail, of storm, storm, such a provision enables us not to expose all our vines in the same region, which could be very full of consequences for the exploitation in the contrary case.
The provision of our pieces offer a safety in harvest to us each year because the climatic risks are a very large risk in the vine growing.
Cellars & buildings
Our cellars progressively built growth of the production and our vineyard. Today, we have installations allowing us to press, vinify, bottle (pulling) and to label our bottles. At the time of this cycle, we call upon some service providers in order to ensure work of our wine and its constant quality and especially by using material always the point in particular in the wine analyses. This intervention enables us to provide a regular wine without needing unspecified standard of quality. Our Qualité standard remains the opinion of the consuming customer.
To make an excellent champagne, the essential element of excellent composition between sugar and acidity and a super healthy state (not of rot,..). But is there still necessary remains a grape to know to work it?
To ensure you a champagne of quality, our choice is all to carry out us same. Our quality of grape gives us the good base and let us forward we it to our own press. Thus, we control all the elements of the cycle of culture of the vine and development of champagne.
You would like discover ours buildings : Press machine building, wine tankers room, bottling, fermentation in bottle, bewaring on slat, official approval, turning and disgorging rooms and packaging rooms
Pressing
Pressing
is a rather critical phase where we press the bunches in order to obtain from
it must (grape juice after pressing). At this time, we give a first option
about the color of the wine. Our own press enables us to press quickly and
not to store the grape too a long time in case (means of stockage/transport
between the stock and the press). Thus, we can prevent that the white grape
juice does not take the black colour of pulp (pinot noir and Meunier). A too
long conservation would bring a red dress.
After pressing and approximately 12 to 15 hours, the first racking (washing) makes it possible to remove the majority of the residues due to pressing like pips for example.
As of the vintage 2003, this machine is not in function (administration rules). A more recent press replaced it : Buchère press "champagne 4000" - 2003 - modern one with built-in flowmeter and sulfidosor amongst other things.
Change of press machinex x x x x x x
Press machine, insidexx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxgate
system xx xxxxxxxxxxxx
Wine making
Then,
we carry out the chaptalization of musts to prepare the first "alcoholic"
fermentation. In order to avoid headaches to our consumers, we store must
in fixed volume tanks and some ones with variable volume. This operation requires
more follow-up of us but it avoids any use of blocking agent.
From October to December, several rackings are carried out in order to prepare the wine and it carry out the second fermentation : "malolactic". Certain champagne producers avoid this phase and are obliged to block this reaction by a contribution of an agent (this one even which to create you headaches). Then, the risk of change (so a problem) is so important.
With each one of these stages, our quality control is carried out by our wine ingeneer by the means of wine analyses.
For our own manufacture (our personal key), we carry out a passage to the cold in order to return resisting champagne against a storage as a freezer or worse to refresh it. This softened stage the wine and him take away no quality gustatory and tends to improve it. This phase is followed of an ultimate filtration in order to withdraw all the microscopic awkward elements.
Bottling - 3rd Fermentation - Conservation on slat
After these operations, must becomes "Vin clair" (clear wine). It is ready with the operation of bottle fulling : "Tirage". During these several months, certain stages require a control of the temperature of the wine in particular for the 3e fermentation (just after the bottle fulling). Each champagne-grower has its secrecy to refine its product.
The stage of bottling named in our trade "tirage", requires to follow
well its preparation in particular with the leaven. it is a double actions
: to bottle and to create in constant manner and uniform champagne bubbles
(3nd fermentation). At this time, we define the size of the bubble with a
temperature control.
First of all, choose a container is limited much to the bottles
of 75 Cl, we produce half-bottles and magna. On the other hand most difficult
is the distribution of the wine in volumes of 75. At this time, we define
the quantities to be sold, 2 to 3 years later (at least 15 month). 
The
bottle fermentation involves the appearance of unaesthetic elements. For this
reason, we close the bottles with capsules. The hermetic character is ensured
by a "thingummy".This object, out of food plastic, can be associated
or dissociated from the capsule. With the capsule, a bottle is opened easier
than a stopper.
Thus, this operation carried out, we store the bottles for 15 month (legal time). The clear wines became wines on slat. The time makes it possible to increase the quality of champagne. The vintage category has a longer conservation time : 36 months.
Approval - Aggrement -
This
storage is one critical moment because we must obtain the right to sell this
product. It is approval INAO (Institute National of the guaranteed vintage
: Service of the regulation of the A.O.C.).
A taking away is carried out after the bottling, it will
be to taste later in order to see the quality of the chamapgne. Without this
approval, your bottles stock can not be sold. The worst is the refusal of
approval . You must pass by again the wines in tanke: to open the bottle,
to treat the wine if the defect is a minor, to take again the cycle of bottle
fulling and the wine phase to slat. In this critical case, the best loss is
only 18 months. This failure is not possible for our exploitation. Our customers
can not wait for us 18 months, they are thirsty!!!. 
After this joke, we never missed this stage.
After this wine transition on slat, the bottle requires to be completed to come to cherish and scatter your tables. This phase is less critical than the preceding one.
Bottle turning & Disgorging
Disgorging is prepared by a stage of "turning". We lay out the
bottles the head in low ("sur pointe") on special machines in order
to make slip the residue (negligible) of the 3rd fermentation towards the
capsule. It is the handling aspect of the title of champagne
grower. This turning lasts several weeks. This operation requires to turn
each bottle of 1/8 to ¼ of turn several times per day. It is rather
long. More and more, mechanization enables us to facilitate this phase. We
still manually carry out this spot for the majority of our bottles.
Once the "turned" bottles, we will discharge them. This stage amounts in a few words making jump the capsule, to evacuate the accumulation of the residues, to proportion the wine, to stop, to muzzle. The champagne is not being a still wine (bubbles), this stage requires to take particular care for not remixing of the residues with the wine, to get partially empty the bottle, etc...
The existing machines make it possible to better control
these potentials risks in particular by freezing the neck.
xxxxxxxxNeck freezing
xxxxxxxxx Disgorging machine (capsule jumping, proportion, stopping,
muzzling) xx Stock after labelling
The last action will better with a new labelling machine on line. We lie the label , just after the bottle wash-machine.
Labelling - package
The final operation is the labelling or "habillage" of the bottle.
Each grower is free to choose its labels but he must follow certain rules,
which laid down for everyone Champagne and A.O.C.. The CIVC - Interprofessional
committee of the Champagne Wines - manages the creation of new preparings
and checks anteriority in order to avoid copying another vine grower and
his preparing. It is a role of industrial protection in this medium (INPI
in industrial circle).
In our case, This stage is the other key of our success. Consequently, we cannot reveal you it (homogenisation of the product). We have very nice labels for all the range of champagne.
We carry out the labelling with self-stick labels in order to control a regular labelling. Unfortunately, certain vintages have not take off automaticaly and we must do it manually.
The
phase of the labelling is most important for the commercial attack. We turned
ourselves on several models and we tested several labels types before stopping
on the existing models today. We can explain it.
First, you see ours labels and if the labels are nice, you are intereting
for tasting our products.
The bottle, worked individually, is then grouped in 6 bottles
cases for our installation. Other formats exist but we have decided to choice
this format for several reasons (principaly , the mass).
This moment, it practically ran out three years in our installations because we chose to make quality, which requires a longer cycle of elaboration. Certain stages can be deleted by our producing colleagues but it is very often to produce bad quality and it is not the cost.
In these some words and images, we have introduced our
installations to you and briefly we have explained the elaboration of champagne.
It is ready to decorate your table