The Estate, Blog
Quality focus, improvement : our bottle, singular at domaine d’Ardhuy, Bourgogne.
To offer wines that are as faithful as possible to our ambitions and values as well as respectful of the work put in over many months by our teams (in the vineyard and in the cellar), the Domaine d’Ardhuy works, innovates and improves…
As a matter of fact, for the past 5 years, Domaine d’Ardhuy has focused on :
- the vineyard (a massive uprooting and replanting campaign),
- the cellar (an extension to our Ladoix-Serrigny winery and the acquisition of a small-capacity pneumatic press better suited to our small white plots as well as a vertical press for some of our red wines),
- production (a fully air-conditioned storage area, a redesigned and optimized packaging line),
- the widespread use of NDtech technology on all our natural corks to eliminate the « cork taste » in our wines,
- acquisition of a waxing machine for our whites in order to deposit a 3 mm wax capsule on top of the cork.
It was time to tackle the most visible part of our business : the bottle.
At the outset, we realized that the quality of the bottles currently on the market could be improved to optimize the aging of our wines.
At the end of 3 years’ work, with the teams of our glass partner Saverglass, the result lived up to our expectations: a new bottle specially designed on the basis of our specifications: the AGAPE 75cl Antique NU 70mm deb. 17.5-S5065.
At first glance, it is similar to its predecessor in :
- its general shape,
- its dark tint for better protection against UVA and UVB rays,
- its square ring.
However, it is unique in its specific features, thanks in particular to :
- a glass quality with no micro-spots, so that the cork adheres even better to the bottle, guaranteeing slower evolution of our wines: the cork/glass interface being, in our view, a key factor in wine conservation,
- an inlet diameter of 17.5 mm (compared with 18.5 mm on our other bottles) to improve the cork’s seal with regard to gas exchange,
- a longer neck with an optimized internal profile to enable us to use a longer cork (54 mm) on our grands crus to improve their ageing potential,
- a longer neck to be able to push the cork deeper -about 3 mm- into our bottles of great white wines in order to apply a disk of wax on top. This new machine (a WAX 4.1 waxing machine, see [www.ardhuy.com]) enables us to place a small disk of food-grade wax on the head of the cork, giving our white wines extra protection to slow down their aging.
This new bottle was used on the red grands crus and some red 1er crus of the 2021 vintage as well as our cuvée Le Clos des Langres Rouge Monopole 2021 (around 13,000 bottles).
For the 2022 vintage, we will be using this new model on about 75% of our production.
The short-term objective is to widely use this AGAPE 17.5 espacially on our 1er Crus, Grands Crus and high value (Red & White) premium cuvées.
Let’s bet that this new bottle will guarantee the anticipated result: increased pleasure when tasting our wines!