Domaine de l’A Cotes de Castillon Bordeaux Wine

Domaine de l’A Cotes de Castillon, Bordeaux wine producer profile, with wine tasting notes, wine ratings, a history of the property, information on wine making and terroir, along with wine tasting reviews. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles

Domaine de l’A is owned by Stephane and Christine Derenoncourt after having purchased the land in 1999. Domaine de l’A is located in the commune of Sainte-Colombe in the Cotes de Castillon appellation. This is close to some very good st. Emilion estates in the Right Bank of Bordeaux. For example, Valandraud, Faugeres and Fleur Cardinale are just down the road.

The 8 hectare Domaine de l’A Bordeaux wine vineyard is located on a terroir of deep clay and limestone soils. The vineyard has a south facing exposure.  The vines are planted to density of close 7,,000 vines per hectare with a vineyard blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is quite an improvement since the the estate was first established. At the time of the purchase in 1999, the vineyard was at best planted to a density of 3,000 vines per hectare. To increase the density, Derenoncourt began planting new rows of vines and placed inside the already planted vines. The average age of the vines is close to 35 years of age, although the vineyard has some old vines that are between 60 and 70 years of age! Domaine de l’A strives to do as much biodynamic farming as possible. Sustainable farming is a practice the owner, Stephane Derenoncourt believes deeply in.

At Domaine de l’A, the fruit is always hand sorted. To vinify the wines, the whole, uncrushed grapes are poured into open-top where they go through whole berry fermentation in open top, oak tank fermentors for a 30-day maceration. Because Domaine de l’A uses completely exposed, open top tanks, they have a perfect view of the cap, which they keep submerged. This allows the wine making team to adapt the precise level of extraction that is best for each tank, as well as to see the berries potential and the grapes reaction to the fermentation process while it’s taking place.

During fermentation the Derenoncourt team at Domaine de l’A is able to monitor the behavior of the vats during process and the adapted extraction. This allows them the ability to decide the number and intensity of cap punching on a vat by vat basis.

Next, the juice is run off into oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and sur lies (for first seven months) aging. The wine is aged in 50% new French oak barrels. On average, close to 20,000 bottles are produced of Domaine de l’A Cotes de Castillon each year.

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