Château Grand Escalion
The vineyard’s 40 hectares are spread over a single area surrounding the estate and stretch across gentle slopes. The Château owes its name to the word “Escalion”, meaning “ascent” in Provençal.
The Estate produces red, rosé and white Costières de Nîmes.
The grape varieties and our terroir enable the vineyard manager, Nicolas Speranza, to capitalise on the great potential of the appellation by creating single-vineyard cuvées.
The wines of the Domain
Terroir and vineyard work
The vines thrive on ancient alluvial terraces of the Rhône, covered with pebbles rolled on a thick layer of red clay that rests, in some places, on a deep substratum of Pliocene blue marl.
This layer of clay retains rainwater, which is invaluable during the summer months.
The whole area benefits from a Mediterranean climate, largely influenced by the proximity of the Camargue ponds.
On average, the vines are less than 20 years old. They are maintained to control plant cover all year round, which is essential to avoid water stress.
Since 2015, the vines’ nutrition comes exclusively from organic products.
“It’s a serious winemaker’s job, with no flights of fancy, which requires a great deal of rigor to ensure high-quality health throughout the year, despite the vagaries of the vintage”. N. Speranza
Red grape varieties: Syrah, Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsault and Marselan.
White grape varieties: Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Rolle and Clairette.
HVE 3
After having been run using integrated farming methods under the Terra Vitis® Label since 2001, the Domaine has been HVE3 – Haute Valeur Environnementale – certified since the 2018 vintage, marking its strong commitment to respecting the terroir, the vines and the people..
The Domainegoes even further in its approach by using exclusively organic fertilizers.
To optimize phytosanitary treatments of the vines, we invested in a connected weather station in 2016.
@Sencrop
It’s an indispensable tool that enables us to:
- Precisely quantify the humidity brought in by the ponds at the end of the night (3am and 5am) in the form of fairly fleeting mists. This enables us to assess the risk of mildew and react accordingly.
- Detect the presence of wind and measure its strength, an important parameter in deciding the best time to spray.
- Anticipate rainfall and adapt our irrigation accordingly. A drip irrigation system has been installed in the vineyard. It is fed by the Bas-Rhône Languedoc irrigation canal, or Canal Philippe-Lamour, which has been carrying water from the Rhône to the south of the Gard département and the east of the Hérault département since the 1960s.
Thanks to the weather station, we can spray more effectively and less often. On average, we spray 2 to 6 times a year, saving on products, time and manpower, and limiting our impact on the surrounding environment, which is also in line with our HVE3 approach.
In addition, for some years now, a shepherd has been grazing his sheep in the vineyards once a year, in winter. This saves on ploughing.
Individual Parcel Cuvées
Although our vineyards are all in one large holding , the variety of grape varieties combined with a plot-by-plot selection carried out by the vineyard manager, Nicolas Speranza, enable us to produce specific cuvées, resulting from particular vinifications or ageings:
- Amoureuse
- Safranée
- Romane
Amoureuse – Careful winemaking
The “key” moments for rosé are pressing and settling.To achieve a quality pressing, several choices are necessary:
- Grapes should be harvested at the coolest time of day: 3am. Pressing a warm grape will extract plant compounds that will cloud the must (which we then want to clarify) and anthocyanins that we don’t want (since we want pale rosés).
- The berries pressed must be as intact as possible. To achieve this, we chose a 50hl membrane press fed by a conveyor belt for gentle direct pressing.
- Settling the must is an essential operation. Press juice clarification (the action of removing suspended particles with clay) must be meticulously carried out to obtain the clearest possible juices and to capture the noblest aromas.
The clearer the juice, the clearer the aromas produced by fermentation. During settling, we correct the orange hues to retain only the violet nuances.
« By using a fining process before fermentation, we preserve all the aromatic and flavour potential of the wine that will develop during fermentation. We work with the juice, not the wine. » Nicolas Speranza
Safranée – A high-potential Costières
In 2014, Nicolas Speranza arrived at Château Grand Escalion to carry out plot selection work, the aim of which was to create a rich, supple and velvety red Costières de Nîmes to highlight the appellation’s potential.
To this end, he also worked on the barrel aging of three Syrah wines. The advantage of ageing the wine in barrels that have already acquired a patina is that the wood does not leave its mark on the cuvée, but allows it to evolve. After 6 to 9 months of ageing, in April-May, the wine is ready, with refined, structured tannins.
Romane – The harvest date is of primary importance
Nicolas planted the white grape varieties in 2014 to give birth to the first Romane cuvée in 2019.
The choice of grape varieties is essential in the construction of the cuvée.
The 3 grape varieties complement each other, bringing acidity, richness and aromas:
- Roussanne, an early-ripening variety. It is harvested when ripe, with a high alcohol content that brings richness and fatness (ripe, golden berries).
- Grenache blanc, a late variety. Harvested rather green. The grapes are very bright, with good acidity and low alcohol content.
- Rolle, a grape variety that expresses its full aromatic potential at medium ripeness.
It’s a well-considered technical choice to harvest, press and vinify them together.
Press and Awards
The work carried out in the vineyard and in the cellar is relayed by the specialized press in France and abroad. Since the 2011 vintage, Château Grand Escalion wines have won awards at competitions such as the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, Concours des Vins de Mâcon, Mondial du Rosé and British competitions..
« Château Grand Escalion is a consistenly reliable rosé producer. » Joe Czerwinski – May 2023
