Château Godeau

Situated in the heart of Saint-Emilion's prestigious vineyard slopes and a close neighbourg of such famous estates as La Mondotte and Tertre Roteboeuf, Château Godeau was acquired by the Florisoone family at the end of 2012. Heirs to a long wine-growing tradition and the former co-owners of Château Calon Ségur, Albéric et Agnès Florisoone saw the potential in this lovely 7 hectares wine estate to express all the passion they feel for the land and for wine-growing. With the hlep of the team at the estate and with Stéphane Derenoncourt as the consultant winemaker, this young winemaking generation is today breathing new energy into its vineyard through careful precision work, painstaking effort and constant high standards allied to a dash of audacity.
This wine-growing philosophy combined with estate's magnificent terroir makes Château Godeau one of the great heirs to Saint-Emilion's wine heritage.

The whole of the Château Godeau wine estate is located on one of the highest slopes of the Saint-Emilion apellation (103m/338ft) in the commune of St Laurent des Combes, where a number of renowed and famous Saint-Emilion grand cru wines are found. Its limestone slopes contain a deep layer of clay whitch enables both optimal drainage and more especially an exceptional regulation of water supply to the vine roots.Our very steep slopes are north/north-west facing and cover seven hectares (17 acres) of vines, the average age of wich is 35 years.
 

The vineyard's soils are cool and conductive to the production of well-strucutred wines. The main grape is Merlot (90%). this is the best adapted variety for these soils; but high on the ridges we also grow a variety witch we are particulary fond of Cabernet Franc, which  makes up the other 10%. Godeau is located on an outstanding geological promontory and is unique in the appellation. The vallery or "combe" at the base of its slopes forms a kind of natural amphitheatre in which nature's cycle is played in four acts.

The style of the wine of Château Godeau is determined by the careful selection of optimally ripe grapes in each of the estate's plot. When this stage has been successfully completed, the raw material is transformed into liquid form. The bunches are taken to the cellars as quickly and as carefully as possible and undergo a painstaking phase of meticulous inspection during which the grapes are sorted both mechanically and manually. Once sorted, the grapes are selected into different batches and placed in small, temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, in which a constant temperature is maintained for the completion of the alcoholic fermentation.
 

The wines of Godeau are unquestionably the most Burgundian of Saint Emilion, not just through the topography of the vineyard's location but also in the winemaking techniques. Vinified in the most delicate way possible, the wines are made using manual pigeages (immersing manually the cap of skins into the juice) rather than with mechanical pump-overs. This technique, which requires quite a lot of physical strength, is nevertheless very gentle. It favours good aeration and interchange between the cap of skins ant its juice.
When this fermentation has been completed, we run off our wines into french oak barrels for the malo-lactic fermentation ( a kind of natural cleaning of the wine). Up to 50% of new barrels may be used depending on the vintage. The wines then age for over 12 months in oak barrels where tey breathe naturally through the microscopic pores of the wood. This natural aeration enhances the ageing process.
 

After this ageing period and numerous tastings of the barrels, we carry out a first blending which will determine the proportion of Godeau in relation to Godeau Ducarpe. A few months before the bottling, the different batches selected for each of the two wines are blended to make two very distinct wines. This is the first and last blending.