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| Château
de Castelnau |
...grows
sunflowers, and wine |
The
entrance to the chateau |
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Le
Vicomte Loïc de Roquefeuille, the owner |
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| Loïc and
Britt seeking shelter in the shade |
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The
entrance to the main building of the château |
This is
what a hailstorm can do: leaves completely destroyed. And it usually
arrives the year after you have quit subscribing to the hail
insurance... |
And this
happens to the grapes: smashed to pieces |
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| And even
the branches are seriously damaged. Plenty of cuts in the bark |
In
short: no harvest here this year and maybe not next year either (mainly
du to the lasting effects of the damage on the wood) |
Luckily,
hail is very local so it usually does not destroy the whole property |
More
grape damage - no harvest to be done here |
Inside a
stainless steel tank. You can see to cooling (or heating) coils. Usually
they are on the outside of the tank, but here they are inside. Probably
more efficient, but more difficult to clean |
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Stainless
cuves |
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And
concrete |
An
"insider's" view of a concrete cuve. The inside is not plain, rough
concrete, but painted in a non-stick coating |
An
unusual sculpture decorating the cellar, and a coat of arms from one old
branch of the family with nine signs, symbolising the nine children of
the bishop (not sure how that worked out...) |
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Wooden barriques for aging the wine. Some are new |
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A
pipette to take samples from the barriques |
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And
finally, tasting the wine |
A most
unusual invention, never seen elsewhere: the barriques are stacked on
"rollers" so instead of doing 'bâtonnage' to stir up the lees you can
just turn them around on the rollers |
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| Le
Vicomte and Britt Karlsson |
Proud of
his wines |
Chateau
de Castelnau with a perfect exposition to the sunset |
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En français
