New cellar
Built into the hillside in 2014, the winery was conceived and designed with the constant aim of receiving and processing the harvest naturally, to preserve the quality of the grapes at every step of the winemaking process.
To make a good dish, you need good ingredients. It’s the same for wines Great wine requires good grapes. 100% of the quality of our wines comes from the vines and our terroir.
We attach major importance to the life of our soils and to the work in the vineyard : choice of rootstock, grape varieties, pruning, debudding, working the soil at the right times, disease control… every detail throughout the year will have an impact on the quantity and quality of the grapes.
The wine is born in the vines
harvesting at the right time
Each vintage and each plot has its own “kairos”. In Greek, kairos refers to the opportune moment. This is the key moment that happens only one time.
Grapes are a fruit that needs to be picked at just the right moment. “Before the time, it’s not the time … the grapes are too acid, not sweet enough, the tannins are still green …
and after the hour it’s no longer the hour … all the acidity and potential freshness have disappeared, the grapes start to concentrate and become too sweet, the skins break and and get damaged.
Depending on climatic conditions and the state of the vines, you need to be able to find and take the kairos to vinify the best grapes each year.
Each vintage and each plot has its own “kairos”. In Greek, kairos refers to the opportune moment. This is the key moment that happens only one time.
Grapes are a fruit that needs to be picked at just the right moment. “Before the time, it’s not the time … the grapes are too acid, not sweet enough, the tannins are still green …
and after the hour it’s no longer the hour … all the acidity and potential freshness have disappeared, the grapes start to concentrate and become too sweet, the skins give way and become damaged.
Depending on climatic conditions and the state of the vines, you need to be able to find and take the kairos to vinify the best grapes each year.
Vineyard Funambulists
Capturing this moment in time is a real funambulist’s job. During the harvest, we have to take into account the current and future weather parameters, the evolution of the grapes in each terraces, the mood of the harvest team, the size of our tanks, the 24-hour a days we have to compose each tank in the best possible way and harvest each plot at the right time.
At Canadel, we look to balance our wines, combining the power of a fine Mourvèdre, the delicacy of a lovely Cinsault and the generosity of a Grenache, all of which need to be harvested at the right time, depending on the terroir.
preserving quality
We took advantage of the slope of the terraces to lean the cellar against them, in order to organize the gravity work. The harvest is first sorted in the vineyard by the grape-pickers, and then sorted a second time in the cellar on a sorting table.
Gravity allows the grapes to fall naturally into the tanks without being crushed or damaged by pumping. The winemaking process is then different for Bandol Blanc, Bandol Rosé and Bandol Rouge (all winemaking steps are explained on the wine pages).
We took advantage of the slope of the terraces to lean the cellar against them, in order to organize the gravity work. The harvest is first sorted in the vineyard by the grape-pickers, and then sorted a second time in the cellar on a sorting table.
Gravity allows the grapes to fall naturally into the tanks without being crushed or damaged by pumping. The winemaking process is then different for Bandol Blanc, Bandol Rosé or Bandol Rouge (all the winemaking steps are explained on the wine pages).
from simplicity, complexity emerges
No high-tech is required to produce great wines, but the choice of noble materials in contact with the wine is essential : the reds are vinified in raw concrete tanks, then aged in oak barrels. Rosés are vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Our Canatera vintage is vinified and aged in clay amphorae.
We take great care in the cleaning of each container, to ensure that the wine expresses only its best, and to avoid any imperfections that may arise.
"Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail".
– Leonardo da Vinci
This quote from Leonardo da Vinci could easily resume our desire to achieve perfection in the vineyard and in the cellar, to bring out the best of our terroir. There is not a single vintage that look like the other, and every year we have to “get back to the drawing board” in order to improve from year to year. But unlike a baker who produces several baking sessions a day, we only have one production a year, which is why every detail is so important to us.
This quote from Leonardo da Vinci could easily resume our desire to achieve perfection in the vineyard and in the cellar, to bring out the best of our terroir. There is not a single vintage that look like the other, and every year we have to “get back to the drawing board” in order to improve from year to year. But unlike a baker who produces several baking sessions a day, we only have one production a year, which is why every detail is so important to us.
experiences
discover the cellar of Canadel
Come and discover Chateau Canadel’s cellar, the secrets and details of wine-making.