INTRODUCTION

The château de Naujan is originally a so called « Maison forte », or fortified manor dating from the beginning of the 14th century. The vineyard is planted with three traditional grape varieties for the reds: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and Semillon for white wine.

The "château" is a beautiful building surrounded by 70 hectars of forests and fields (including 38 hectars of vineyards). Here we can welcome our guests and customers. The wine is growing in total respect of the nature and for the wine making M.Batisse is helped by experienced winemakers to produce suple, fruity wines.

The winery offers accommodation in the chateau Isabeau de Naujan.

WINERY

The cellar was built in 1999.

Our modern vinification equipment ensures perfect hygienic conditions in the cellars. Vinification occurs in stainless steel vats for practically all the harvest, although concrete vats are used for some cuvees. All our vats have temperature monitoring, allowing us to keep the temperature under perfect control, both when cooling the vats, when heating them, or to keep them at a stable temperature. This temperature control is essential to obtain high quality products.

Before entering the vats, the grapes are destemmed, so as to remove all leaves and stalks, leaving only the berries and the juice. The first 48 to 72 hours, the vats are cooled down so as to avoid starting the fermentation. During this cooling period, re-cycling occurs with the help of inert nitrogen gas (recycling in this context means letting the juice flow from the bottom to the top of the vat).

After this first stage, the vats are slowly heated up, which starts the alcoholic fermentation process. The must is regularly recycled and two or three times, the ‘hat’ is loosened so as to obtain optimal extraction of the tannins and aromas contained in the fruit. When the alcoholic fermentation is finished, the vat is cooled down again for a natural fining of the wine. In the next stage, we work the wines with micro-oxygenation when they are in the post fermentation stage, under the lees.
Once the malolactic fermentation has ended, we taste the vats with our oenologue and decide the blend attributions of each one. This is then followed by ageing in oak barrels for the 1ères côtes de Bordeaux and the cuvees prestiges of our Bordeaux Supérieur.

Ageing lasts twelve months. During this maturing period, our best cuvees are subjected to micro-oxygenation. This technique helps develop the tannin/anthocyane structure, which gives volume, a better structure, and an intense colour to the wine. At the same time, the aromatic complexity also develops.

As to our sweet white Cadillac wine, it is harvested by selection of individual berries, which are then sorted and destemmed. The grapes are delicately pressed and the resulting juice is put in oak barrels to undergo alcoholic fermentation. When the desired alcohol/sugar balance is reached, we stop the fermentation, and leave it to age for twelve months in oak barrels.

The vineyard is planted with three traditional grape varieties for the reds :
• Merlot
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Cabernet Franc

and for our sweet white wine :
• Semillon

Our vineyards are tended in full respect of Nature and the environment
Rows are spaced 3 m apart, while the vines are planted at 0.9 to 1.0 m intervals.
Yield monitoring starts early, with the winter pruning.

Double asted pruning is used to distribute the grapes evenly and avoid an accumulation of the bunches which could induce undesirable rot on the red grapes.

During the spring, several sprouts are cut away to promote the upward flow of the sap into the remaining branches and also to avoid having too much foliage which would compete with the grapes.

As early as June, leaves are cut away on one side of the rows to promote the change of colour of the grapes and to enhance the sugar concentration process. The work is all done by hand. Once a year, we spray weed killer under the rows in measured quantities, but never in winter.
All the vineyards are planted with grass in a measured way so as to induce competition between the plants and in order to monitor the yields and the stress induced by the necessary lack of water during the summer months.

We work on three Bordeaux appellations:

Appellation Bordeaux supérieur
The grapes are harvested mechanically by the estate itself so as to ensure high quality results.

Appellation 1ère côtes de Bordeaux
On this appellation, the harvest is done manually, with hand sorting of the bunches.

Appellation Cadillac
The grapes are harvested and sorted manually in order to obtain a sweet white wine. 

WINES

Wine Portfolio:

• La Chapelle d'Arcy (Bordeaux, Bordeaux Clairet, Dry White Bordeaux)

• Isabeau de Naujan (Bordeaux, Bordeaux Clairet, Dry White Bordeaux)

• Château Naujan Lapeyrere (Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, Cadillac)

• Château Lafleur Naujan (Bordeaux Supérieur, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Clairet).

WINE TOURISM

Domaine de Naujan has a beautiful wine boutique hotel among the vineyards.

True to its original wine vocation, Château Hotel Isabeau offers many activities on the theme of wine : cellar visits, tasting session, tasting courses, conferences about winemaking, terroir, the tending of the vineyards, and so on… as well as wine-based cooking courses and wine / food matching counselling.

SOCIAL NETWORKS