1998 Berliquet

In a few short years, Patrick Valette has sharply increased quality at this well-placed nine-hectare estate through a host of improvements in viticulture and vinification. For starters, harvesting on these complex soils (the domaine features a range of chalk, blue clay and sandy clay) is done with greater precision (in 2000, the harvest began on September 22 and lasted a solid month), and smaller stainless steel tanks are used for the primary fermentation. The fruit is sorted twice, before and after being destemmed. And today wine undergoes its malolactic fermentation in barriques, all of which are new. The lees are stirred until the spring after the harvest.