History
We call this Cuvée Traditionnelle because since the creation of the first bottles of the Château des Arras, the Cuvée remains the same.
Grapes
60% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaking
The parcel harvest allows us to reserve the most fruity grapes for the elaboration of this wine.
Alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel vats, with extraction of the color by reassembly then malolactic fermentation in stainless steel vats as well. The wine is kept in vats to preserve the freshness of the fruits. It is bottled in the year following the harvest.
Our opinion
This wine is both fruity and structured. The tannins well present provide a beautiful structure and the roundness of Merlot leaves a nice length in the mouth. An ideal wine for summer meals, boards and BBQ. But is very suitable for dishes in sauce or Italian.
To drink or to keep between 8 - 10 years
To download
From grapes to wine
In few words, this is how we make the Cuvée Traditionnelle:
We machine harvest all the vines. The Harvest is brought into the cellar on a special trailer and poured into the stalk separator - crusher (the stalk being the green part that hold the berries together) and will crushed slightly the berries and release some juice before sending them into the tank.
In the tank, the weight of the berries will accelerate the extraction of the juice whom will start to colour. The juice takes its red colour from the berries most precisely when it touches the skin. The skin in naturally charged with anthocyanins, red natural pigments, which are essential for making wines with ageing potential. The longer the juice macerates with the skin the darker it gets. And it also gets loaded with polyphenols, which are natural antioxidant.
And now begin the process of fermentation, when the juice will turn into wine, which means the sugar transforms into alcohol. The final step is the malo-lactic fermentation: when the malic acid change into lactic acid. When you don't have any acid malic left you have your fisnihed wine and the aging can start. Our wine will have few months to rest before bottling.
