Chateau Croque Michotte Saint Emilion Grand Cru 1999

Chateau Croque Michotte

Saint Emilion

Grand Cru Class

The name Croque-Michotte comes from an old bread oven on the estate where people used to bake their bread – a 'michotte' is a loaf of 2 kg.

The estate has been in the family since 1906 when Samuel Geoffrion, the great-grandfather of the current owners and vintners, bought Château Croque-Michotte in Saint-Emilion. The property is run today by Pierre Carle and his daughter Lucile.

Located on the border of the Pomerol appellation, on soils bordering those of the best Saint-Emilion and Pomerol plantations, Château Croque-Michotte has been grown organically since 1999.

The chateau produces a second wine, 'Les Charmilles de Croque-Michotte'.

The tillage and management of the vineyard are done by hand and the rows of vines are planted close together, as they would have been when horses were used. By keeping yields low - mainly due to bunch thinning in July and very limited use of fertilizers - the resulting wines are a true representation of their terroir, with the requisite natural acidity that all great wines destined for storage to have. Leaves are removed and harvest is done as late as possible to ensure optimum ripeness.

In the winery, the grapes are destemmed, sorted using an optical grape sorter and crushed. The barrel duration is adapted to the quality of the vintage and is extended by post-fermentation maceration.

The wines mature slowly, over a period of about twenty months, in accordance with the seasons and spend a year in fine-grain French oak barrels.

Testimony:

“Each year, Croque-Michotte is inspected by a Ministry of Agriculture approved body: Ecocert FR BIO 01. The standard ensures that the health of vineyard workers and consumers is protected, as well as environmental diversity – the birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, acarids, bacteria and worms for example – and of course it promotes the growth of vines”.

agricultural biology Distinguishing features:

In 1999, Château Croque-Michotte was the first major grower to switch to organic viticulture