REGION

Montagne-Saint Emilion has been an « Appellation d'Origine Controlée » (AOC) since 1936. This appellation is a government certification which guarantees the quality of wine in France. Only red wine production is approved under the Montagne-Saint-Émilion AOC.The vineyard of Montagne-Saint Emilion stretches 1600 hectares with 210 properties that is an average of approximately 7,6 hectares per farm.
 

Family olding Vieux Château des Rochers is about 5.2ha. Our vineyard is set up :
-clay limestone soil with old underground quarry 1.50ha
-clay siliceous hillside soil 0.9ha
-clay limestone soil 2.8ha 

Plantings : 
80% Merlot et 20% Cabernet franc

Merlot is the principal grape variety. It grows on clay-limestone soil wich brings powerful and round red wines with a fine colour, red fruits flavour and a hint of spice. Cabernet franc bring structure to the wine.

Average age of vines : 
45 years old with old cabernets planted in 1945 !

Work of the vineyard :
To obtain a great wine, the grapes must be of high quality, ripe and healthy.
For this, a lot of care is brought to the vine: precise size, trimming, suckering, leafing, green harvesting.
All these actions make it possible to limit the diseases and to adapt the treatments as close as possible to the needs of the fight against the mildew mainly; this is called prophylactic measures.

Soil work :
 The soils are worked one rank out of two in most cases except on the hillsides where grassing is total on the plots. Wild plants can then grow.

Harvesting and vinification :
 Manual harvesting is followed by de-stemming, careful sorting of berries and crushing. The vinification is carried out in micro-cuvées of single parcel or groups of similar parcels. We then obtain quality wines that express the best of the region !

Wine breeding 12 to 18 month :
-Stainless steel tank
-Oak French Barrel

Average production :
28 000 bottles/year