In the Middle Ages, Castellum referred to the central castle Castrum, a fortified village located on the heights in Languedoc. The name of this vintage evokes the fortifications of the City of Carcassonne, classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Comments from Guillaume Barraud, Deputy Director of Estates:

The Castellum vintage comes from the best plots of the estate and are located on a clay-sandstone hillside facing the magnificent city of Carcassonne. The vines are at a climatological crossroads between the Mediterranean and oceanic influence. This is why grape varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec are particularly popular there. These grape varieties, through daily monitoring of the grapes during the harvest which lasts until the end of October, reach full phenolic maturity while retaining surprising levels of freshness. We thus have a wine with silky tannins that blend perfectly with those of the 12-month aging in oak barrels, a very beautiful power while having an extension on the freshness and elegance. These wines also need time to age in the bottle to express the full potential of this wine, which is possible with this 2016 vintage.

Comments from our Head Sommelier:

Castellum 2016 is a red wine offering a complex aromatic ranging from chocolate to black berries through menthol and leather notes. On the palate, the tannins are supple and balanced by a beautiful minerality. The finish is long and on the delicacy of fruits. 2016 is a sunny vintage which allowed the harvest of fully ripe and healthy fruits.

The work begins in the vineyard with meticulous work in order to obtain healthy and well-exposed foliage. The grapes must have an optimal level of maturity. A plot selection is carried out and the harvest is manual with destemming and sorting of the berries.

The winemaking process is traditional. The grapes are destemmed and then a long vatting period is carried out (with a temperature of 26°C in thermoregulated vats) to promote the expression of the fruit. The pressing takes place taking care to separate the presses, then the wines are racked in order to eliminate the coarsest lees before malolactic fermentation. Following the latter, the wines are racked again and then aged in French oak barrels.