01. Genesis

Preserved by the clay court of the chateau cellar for many years, a treasure was waiting to be discovered. A bottle of wine, sealed with emery, glass blown by hand, evidence of an ancient know-how.

With some emotion, the man who discovered it also dug out a 200-year-old past, loaded with history and mysteries.

Who buried it? How long had it been there exactly? Why a heart-shaped glass stopper? Was it a special manufacturing for a wedding or a love symbol from the winemaker to this vintage?

02. The Estate

This bottle is obviously evidence of the unique nature of this chateau where almost nothing has changed for 200 years. A soil unspoiled by chemical pollution, on top of a hill, and therefore not subject to untimely runoff, with unique fauna and flora including species extinct elsewhere.

A wine born from the will of men to be fair, content at home, with honor and reason, while preserving the wealth of their land. They collected this legacy with an acute awareness, as future go-betweens of this little heaven. Old, perhaps medieval, grape varieties and winemaking methods showing that harmony between nature, man, and productivity exists. A chalky-clayey soil at the center of prestigious estates such as Beausejour Becot and Angelus, with a southwest exposure.

03. The Adventure

As an heir of this culture, Adrien David Beaulieu, when he found out about his uncle’s wonderful discovery, challenged himself to uphold the tradition and to create a special cuvée according to the methods prevailing in the year when the bottle was estimated.

He then selected the highest plots in the vineyard, the «Peycocut plots», the remnants of Saint-Emilion area before the time of pesticides. The two emblematic grape varieties of the appellation are grown there: Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Merlot is the "red-tailed" type Merlot, characterized by its small size and low yields, fostering excellent concentration. It has always been grafted by the David-Beaulieu family and was achieved by mass selection.

Cabernet Franc is characterized by its precocious maturity that comes from the type of rootstock. It is therefore easier to control its evolution and consequently to harvest in excellent conditions of maturity.

04. Respecting the Ground

To preserve the untouched ground, no tractor circulates: a draft horse performs the tasks. Soils are less compacted, which fosters the flow of water and the life of invertebrates and micro-bacterial organisms. The soil of these plots is therefore richer in assistants.

Treatments to protect the vines are those applied in the 19th century with the Bordeaux bouillie, sprayed by men. The small size of the plots and the method used for treatments ensure healthy vines and fruit.

Once the grapes begin to mature, they are harvested and sorted by hand and deposited, always manually, in a wooden vat. Vinification is carried out without using pumps, by manual treading, just like our ancestors.

Protected in an old winery with perfect micro-bacterial balance, malolactic transformation is carried out naturally, without added commercial yeast or bacteria. They are indigenous.

This vintage will be matured for 18 months in 50%-new oak barrels.

05. The Bottle

The last essential step to faithfully respect this ancestral discovery: the bottle and its sealing method. 150 km from his vineyard, Adrien David Beaulieu meets a glassblower. This best worker of France studied the bottle meticulously and succeeded in identifying the chemical components of the glass and stopper, the bottle and stopper being of different composition.

He then created the wooden mold which allowed a perfect replica of the bottle. This method, inherited from old know-how and craftsmanship, requires replacing the mold every 50 bottles, as the heat slowly deforms the glass.

Finally, the sealing: glass stoppers are molded in a steel mold to the exact dimensions of the original. It requires 30 minutes of manual lapping with a micro-diamond reamer to make the bottle completely airtight.

The wine, maturing very slowly in a closed system, will give rise to an exceptional production: «la cuvée Emeri».