The Process

“Heritage is Future”

Our philosophy 

At La Gineste we believe in the winemaking heritage of the Cahors Region that has shaped this historic land since the Roman Empire.
We don’t rush for the latest trends, instead we celebrate the old traditions.
La Gineste has dedicated it’s passion to Cahors historic AOP grape Malbec / Côt. We choose to work under the strict biological standards and we embrace mankind’s old tradition of letting fine wines mature in french oak barrels.
We see the beauty in aging grape-vines instead of hunting for for high volume replacements.
In other words we will always put quality and heritage first!

La Gineste produces three categories of biological Red Wine.

N°3: 100% Malbec matured in finest and new made Barrique barrels for at least 2 years

N°6: 100% Malbec matured in Barrique barrels for over 12 months

N°9: 85% Malbec blended with 15% Merlot

Château la Gineste has followed a philosophy of organic viticulture since the early 2000s. Since 2013, all of the wines and the other plants cultivated on Château la Gineste´s land have the ECOCERT organic certificate. At Château la Gineste we believe that a healthy relationship with the land surrounding us, where we grow our beloved vines leads to a stunning result for every sense. 

The Terroir

The Terroir in Cahors consist of three terraces, which are rich in limestone and clay. At Château la Gineste we are predominately located on the second Terrace. To produce the best wines possible, the vines, planted in the 1980s, are exeptionally deeply rooted in the soil. The other plants, such as clover, alfalfa and saltpetre vetch, take away the nutrients from the upper layers, which means that the vines have to root deeper and thus reach the more valuable layers in the soil, which consist of limestone and clay.

 

The work in the vineyard 

The vines are pruned using the single guyot method. This means that there is a short root and a long strech on the vine. The last year's strech is cut off and a new one is wrapped around the wire. The fruit branch closest to the root is left on and shortened to 6 -12 eyes. Afterwards it is wrapped around the lowest wire. Every year in July, a green harvest or thinning takes place. When thinning, the grapes are deliberately reduced. This reduction of grapes on a vine causes the remaining grapes to have a more intense and better quality, as they receive more nutrients. As protection against various external influences, we use a Brodeaux mixture with well thought-out copper management.

The yield we get per hectare from our vineyard is in most cases even less than 30hl per hectare.

 

The Vinification  

After the grapes are brought to the Château and sorted they are put into vats. The most and grapes are kept in the vats together and rotated daily to ensure a good blend. The vinification takes place at 28°C to ensure a very gentle extraction of the tannins. 

After a successful vinification the malolactic fermentation takes place either in vats or oak barrels, depending on the different wines . 

After the successful ageing of the wine it is bottled without filtration at the Château