Assembly tasting
When that the new wines have passed through the winter, we proceed in March or April to a decisive event in collaboration with our oenologue: the assembly tasting. We take samples of all our tanks, taste and analyze them in detail, and then decide about the assemblage of our three cuvés "Faugères", "Faugères Réserve" and "Faugères Grande Réserve". Our focus lies on the characteristics of the wines from the 17 vineyards to reach the typology of our three cuvés. In some years, it may be that we decide not to produce the Grande Réserve.

Ageing
After the assembly tasting the three cuvés are aged either in stainless steel tanks, concrete tanks, barriques of 2 to 5 years and punctually in new barriques. We are currently testing ageing in a concrete egg-shaped tank as well as in a terracotta amphora. The quantities of wine of each cuvé which is aged in these containers are decided each year based on the assembly tasting.

Bottling
The "Faugères" is bottled after one year of ageing, the "Réserve" and "Grande Réserve" after two years. We bottle by end of August in "fruit day", just before starting the harvest.

Before bottling we protect our wines with a small amount of sulfites (sulfur dioxide, SO2). All wines naturally contain small amounts (5-8 mg/liter) of sulfites. They come naturally from the activity of the yeast during fermentation. Before bottling, we add a very little dose of sulfites to our wines, in order that they contain totally on average 25-30mg/liter of total SO2 (by comparison: the legally permitted value ​​for dry red wines in the European Union is 150mg/l, for organic wines: 100mg/l, for Demeter-certified wines: 70 mg/l). Our experience from the past ten years shows that these very low values ​​of added sulfites allows us to successfully protect our wines from any undesirable microbial deviations.