Château des Poupets

From the estate

Élevage and bottling at the château

After the press, the wine is still a sketch. Winter, vessels, and a careful bottling decide whether Juliénas arrives tense, generous, or built to keep.

Philip Larson · Wikimedia Commons

Published 11 August 2027

Malolactic: the second quiet fermentation

When the alcoholic fermentation is done, a bacterial conversion usually softens malic acidity into lactic smoothness. In a cool cellar it can take weeks or months. We taste for the moment the wine loses its green edge and gains a rounder mid-palate — without letting it go slack. Juliénas needs freshness; malo should polish, not erase.

Steel, concrete, and a little oak

Most Gamay here is raised in tank: stainless steel or concrete keeps fruit precise and lets granite speak. A share of oak — older barrels more often than new — can weave spice and a longer texture into a Cru lot. New oak easily masks Gamay; we use wood as furniture, not as perfume. The vessel is chosen for the cuvée, not for fashion.

Élevage and bottling at the château
Frank Schulenburg · Wikimedia Commons

Racking, blending, and patience

Racking lifts the wine off heavy lees when clarity and purity need it; leaving it longer can add savour. Assemblage brings parcels and press fractions together into the Juliénas you will drink. We wait until the wine stops tasting like a construction site. Some lots see a first spring bottling; others stay until they have a quieter voice.

Mise en bouteille au château

Bottling at the estate keeps the vintage in our hands until the cork. Timing, sulphur, filtration decisions, and a calm line matter as much as any vat. A bottle shock will hide the wine for a few weeks; then Juliénas comes back — fruit, spice, and the hill. That is the last vinification gesture: not a ceremony, a precise close.

Élevage is how a harvest learns manners. At Les Poupets we raise Juliénas until it can travel — then we put it in glass and let the year speak for itself.

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