Stainless Steel wine tanks

Château de l’Horte expands, and the capacity of the production expands as well. That’s why we bought several brand new oak wooden winebarrels for the harvest of 2007, to produce more of the wines like Marquis de St. Felix, Reserve Speciale and Grande Reserve. These wines are getting more popular than ever. This year we’ve purchased twice as many new winebarrels because the quality of the 2007 harvest is so superb, we want to produce more wines like the Reserve Speciale, and also because we want to use part of the harvest to make new wines. This is why we have decided to keep the produce of the 2007 rosé to a minimum and use the largest part for the production of red wines.

 

The existing building has been extended and a large new part has been built. The old building has been redecorated for which the cuvees had to be transferred as well as the press we use for the harvest. In the cellar we produce wines traditionally but with the most modern machines. Recently we’ve bought several stainless steel tanks, also known as INOX tanks.

Part of our wines ripens on oakwooden barrels, but not all of our wines. We produce red wines that are “ready” soon after harvesting, but our produce consist mainly of grapes we ripen in the oakwooden barrels, which has the effect that the wines have a softer taste. The wood supports the fruit, that is always the principle. These wines are also more powerful. Oakwooden barrels can also be used as storage, just as the cuvees of concrete. Sometimes the oak barrels are also used as a place for the yeasting process. Before, at Château de l’Horte we soley used conrete Cuvees or synthetic tanks.

We use some of the new INOX barrels for the vinification and some for storage:
3 Inox Cuves a 75 Hectolitres for temporary storage of wine
1 Inox Cuve a 10 Hectolitres for storage of wine to add to the barrels
1 Inox Cuve a 50 Hectolitres for storage of wine in the bottle department
3 Inox Cuves a 150 Hectolitres for the vinification in the winecellar

All the Cuvees are temperature controlled, and provided with the latest techniques. The stainless steel tanks help the wines to purify, stay fresh and keep the fruit intact, because there is no contact with oxygen. A great plus is that we can control the temperature of the wines. This results in pure flavors and even more concentrated wines. This is an enormous improvement for the red wines, but also for the white wines and rosés.