Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC - Viticulture and Winemaking

Viticulture and Winemaking

Like most of the Loire, the main red grape of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is Cabernet franc (known locally as Breton) with Cabernet Sauvignon accounting for an increasing amount of plantings. Vineyards are densely planted with 5000 grapevines per hectare. Both Cabernet varieties are usually trained to the guyot simple system with one long cane pruned to seven or eight buds each winter. Both grapes are late-ripening varieties that require a long growing season ideally ending with an Indian summer in order to achieve full ripeness.

After harvest the grapes are destemmed and crushed with a short maceration period, often with the must warmed up to aid in extraction of color and phenolics before the wines are pressed and put into barrel. The wine almost always goes through malolactic fermentation. Some Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil producers with vineyards planted in lighter soils will produce an early maturing wine, with an even shorter maceration period and much less oak aging, that can be released as early as the summer after vintage while other examples will see 15 to 18 months of aging before being bottled.