Spring is here and time for our first, post winter sous tirage. The farmer warns it must be under a black moon, and not on a stormy day (beware atmospheric pressure.) The deep cold was a boon, taking care of most of this filtration process naturally so we haven’t added chemicals, or fiddled with extra interventions that increase the risk of too much oxygen in the wine (oxidation). In fact, we had a visit recently from an American importer and he was pleased to discover that the young wine already exhibits the unique flavor of our terroir, and could tell by the full fruit taste that we had harvested at maturity. He hoped we would avoid the trap of many industrialized wines – where over filtration steals the soul right out of the juice.
So today’s sous tirage begins by cleaning (again) our spare tank and then pumping 93 hectoliters (about 12,000 bottles of wine) out of the resting tank, in order to elimin
ate the deposits at the bottom and on the sides. We were amazed at the crystals on the inner walls of the tank, and astounded by the snake-like formations of the beautiful lie at the bottom. Pretty as it is, we don’t want you to find this at the bottom of your bottle.
The ma
n hopped inside to brush out the lie and the crystals, and then we scrubbed, using toothbrushes for the tiny crevices, to remove every
little deposit before major rinsing.
Fortunately it was a warm afternoon; we soaked ourselves and the dog as well.
Then the process in reverse, pumping the wine back into the big tank and carrying several buckets up the ladder so as not to waste a single precious drop. The man is now an expert in 
fitting the moveable lid and he gave a huge sigh of relief when we locked it up tight.
By the time we finished washing all the equipment it was dark. Outside the stars had come out, and the tiniest sliver of the first crescent moon shone in the dark blue twilight sky.
