Bottling

Lately, I've spoken mostly of the vineyards. Let’s return to the cellar, the bottling chain precisely.  

The spring and early summer periods are favorable to bottling. This is the last technical step before selling the wine.  A bottling can not be improvised at the last minute, the wine has to be prepared. This job can sometimes take three months.

At this stage, the wine is "fragile" and the slightest error can have major consequences on the quality of the final product. A filter poorly prepared, a tank not correctly cleaned, a machine poorly resolved and it is a disaster! Our team ensures that everything goes well throughout the process.

The bottles are first cleaned and dried :

before being filled (Turasan Rose 2009 on picture) : 

corked : 

labelled, and then packaged in boxes of 12 bottles : 

During the corking, corks are compressed and must take their initial shape in the bottle to ensure a perfect seal. Therefore, we maintain bottles vertical during 24-48 hours. Then they are layed down and stored a few weeks or months depending on the wine.

The wine is aged in the bottle in our cellars. 

Racking barrels

In Cappadocia, spring is beginning and temperatures rise slowly; it is time for a first rack on the barrels.

Last December, after maceration and fermentations, the wines have been sent in casks to start their barrel ageing. This period can last more than a year. Meanwhile the wine changes hugely.

Sometimes, it is necessary to rack these barrels to eliminate the lees that have settled to the bottom and to aerate the wine.
That's what we started to do this week with the barrels of 2009 Syrah. It's a big job because you have to empty the barrels one by one without taking the lees and then move them to be washed with water.

Afterwards, we send steam for twenty minutes to sterilize the barrels.

Then you have to bring them back in the barrel store (chai) and ensure that they are perfectly aligned. As I'm pretty demanding about it we can spend several hours aligning them!!!

Finally, the wine turns back in barrels where it will continue its maturation. But be careful, barrels shouldn't overflow!!!

Seneler Chardonnay, ageing in barrel and “bâtonnage”

Today, this is “bâtonnage” day for Chardonnay. But what does this mean??

The “bâtonnage” action aims to resuspend the lees (dead yeast essentially) in a wine. This was traditionally done with a wooden stick. Today, we use stainless steel “dodine” more or less complex depending on the choice of the cellar master.

The “bâtonnage” promotes the autolysis of yeasts and gives more body to the wine (feeling fat in the mouth). It also promotes the development of complex flavors.

1-2 :  Chardonnay’s barrel before batonnage. The lees are deposited.

3-4-5 : Barrel of Chardonnay being stirred. Lees disturb the wine.

6 : Barrel of Chardonnay after batonnage