In search of lost rituals. Once de rigueur, some winemaking techniques have given way to newer practices. Today, innovation is not without tradition.
Every morning, the ritual begins when Charbel Abboud descends the steps leading to the Château L’Evangile winery. As soon as the doors are pushed open, the cellar master instinctively sniffs the air. Identifying certain scents, he knows immediately if the process is on track. Next, he approaches the vats, testing their temperature by touch alone.
These simple gestures are ancient, human; you might say they give the wine its soul.
Charbel Abboud, Cellar Master at Château L’Evangile, takes us on a journey back in time to discover the origins of traditional practices.
“The vintage tells us how to work, not the other way round. You must respect the wine itself, right down to the last stage. That’s why sometimes, depending on the vintage, we’ll call on ancient techniques.”
The first depictions of the winemaking process date back to ancient Egypt. Visual depictions of grape pressing and harvesting have been found dating to the 3rd century BCE. Fifteen centuries later, in 1234, we know that Château Lafite Rothschild was already producing wine.
From generation to generation, from era to era, the techniques are learned, refined, and passed on. There is no ‘bible’ for cellar masters, and the transfer of knowledge is direct, informal – through repetition, language, and most of all the senses. Today’s winemaking is a true testament to its lineage.
And as all good winemaking takes time and careful attention, each vintage dictates its own unique needs. Charbel Abboud explains: « The vintage tells us how to work, not the other way round. You must respect the wine itself, right down to the last stage. That’s why sometimes, depending on the vintage, we’ll call on ancient techniques. »
If we had to find a cause for all the techniques forgotten to time, it would of course be technology. Which, often helpful, has found its place within our cellars amidst hundreds of oak barrels and terracotta amphorae.
The technique for filling barrels is a good example of how our methods have evolved. Until the end of the 2010s, our barrels were filled ‘by ear’. Because the tap was about 10 cm inside the barrel, hidden behind solid wood, the cellar master couldn’t see the level with his eyes – and had to rely on hearing alone to determine the precise moment to stop filling.
Now, mechanical barrel fillers will automatically detect when the barrel is full. A gentle beep tells our cellar master that the process is complete, and he can move on to the next one. The tool requires much less attention than the ‘ear test’, but Charbel Abboud knows that he still needs to «live with the wine» and stay vigilant for potential leaks.
Anyone who has ever worked in a wine cellar knows that carrying barrels requires considerable strength. In addition to the necessary safety measures, all these repetitive movements can take a toll on the body. Certain gestures have, therefore, become more automated to relieve the pressure on the cellar masters and their teams.
Barrel lifters now use a steel arm to pick up the barrels, move them, and put them away. But as Charbel Abboud says, «Once the barrel is placed on its support or atop another barrel, we check by hand to be sure it’s not crooked, to avoid any risk of it falling. When there’s too much technology, there’s not enough human action.»
So it’s powerful support system, which transforms our human gestures without eliminating them.
“When there’s too much technology, there’s not enough human action”
If some techniques are occasionally forgotten, today’s winemaking is more respectful of the product, the workers, and the environment. The vineyards of Château L’Evangile have been certified organic since 2021. The estate has been preparing for this transition for several years. But there’s more to be done, in bringing our work in the land and vineyards to the highest possible standard.
From the 18th century onwards, producers used the technique of sulphuring barrels to sanitise the wood and preserve the wine during ageing. But while sulphur is known for its antiseptic and antioxidant properties, it is also a pollutant, irritant and allergen. The cellar masters and their teams used to wear masks with filters when they lit the sulphur pellet and plunged it into the barrel, a process known as sulphur wicking.
Previously, all the barrels, once emptied, were systematically washed and treated with sulphur wicking – around 200 barrels per vintage. Today, we use sulphur much less – only for barrels remaining empty for more than a fortnight. Those immediately refilled go through a machine that washes and sterilises without using sulphur. With the help of a digital program, the process now takes previous work into consideration: for a barrel washed a month ago, the quantity and temperature of water used is evaluated, to preserve water and electricity consumption.
In the nooks and crannies of the Château L’Evangile winery, there are still vestiges of the techniques of a bygone era. Old candlesticks remind us that not so long ago, the wine was still racked here by candlelight.
This technique filters the wine and removes any residual particles from the bottom of the barrel during transfer operations. When the transfer was complete, a small amount of wine was poured into a transparent glass and placed over the flame of a candle at the barrel’s opening, to observe its clarity. Once the wine became too cloudy and full of sediment, the transfer was stopped.
Today, Charbel Abboud uses an LED lamp for racking, but admits that he would gladly succumb to the charm of a candlestick and do it «the old-fashioned way».
Château L’Evangile is proud to carry on the tradition of many historic ‘gestures’, including:
Fining: a technique dating back through antiquity, which consists of adding a substance (often egg white) to the wine in the vat or barrel to make the unwanted tannins fall to the bottom.
Integral vinification: the process of putting part of a harvest of whole grapes into barrels until they have been macerated and fermented.
Topping up: or “filling up to the eye”, in other words, up to the barrel’s opening. Since the 14th century and the introduction of barrels, the maximum level of the barrels has been topped up regularly, to compensate for losses due to evaporation – sometimes known as ‘the angel’s share’.
Barrel tinting: a Bordeaux practice of painting the middle of the barrels in red to avoid unattractive wine drips staining the barrels during topping up.
The Bodies behind the Body
The weight-lifting phrase épaulé jeté, in English ‘clean and jerk’, or more literally in French, ‘shouldered-throw’, became immortalised in the oenological sense by the illustrator Michel Tolbert whose iconic posters for Catherine & Pierre Breton’s Bourgeiul and Chinon estate are now replicated in wine bars across the world.