The cuvée “Nature” is a wine that Lou first made in 2020, and which puts the Muscadelle grape variety front and center. The blend is 80% Muscadelle and 20% Sauvignon Blanc. Whole clusters are chilled overnight and then fermented with indigenous yeasts in old Bordeaux barrels The time in the barrel is limited to three months because no SO2 is used during the entire process. The wine is bottled without filtration. 800 bottles are produced per vintage.

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Château du Grand Bos is located in Castres, in a part of the Graves appellation which is home to some of the oldest Bordeaux vineyards dating back 2,000 years. The Château and vineyard lie near the old Roman road named “Chemin Gallien”. As early as 1868, editions of Cocks & Feret listed Château du Grand Bos as a leading estate in its commune. When André Vincent bought the property in 1988, the vineyard, composed of very deep gravel, had not been cultivated for thirty years. André sold his property in Saint Estephe, Chateau La Haye, with the idea of retiring at Grand Bos. Realizing the remarkable potential of his terroir, he instead immediately set out to replant the vineyard in addition to restoring the Château. After the initial work was done in the late 1980’s, André made further renovations to the winery in 2005 and refashioned the underground cellar into a pristine barrel room which includes a 17^th century well that offers lots of natural humidity.

The vineyard totals 22 hectares with 18 hectares in red grapes and 4 hectares in white grapes. André Vincent was ahead of his time by farming without pesticides or herbicides and using only copper sulfate (bouillie bordelaise) against mildew. He worked the soil throughout the year, including “chaussage et dechaussage”, a traditional method of protecting the vine over the winter by covering the base of the plants with soil just after harvest and then removing it in the spring. In 2007 André’s daughter, Marie, began helping her father run the estate. In 2017, André’s granddaughter, Lou Rochet, arrived at the winery with master’s degrees in both chemistry and oenology. Her first vintage was 2018. Since 2020 the winery has been in organic conversion and the 2023 vintage was the first to be certified. Lou uses bio-dynamic principles in her farming and is able to grow many of the necessary plants for her tisanes in the forest that surround her vineyard. She also works with a local beekeeper who stations his hives throughout the vineyard. All harvesting is done by hand.

- Wine Traditions

Bordeaux Is Back.

Graves Blanc 'Nature' 2023