Ears wide open

Imagine this: you find yourself amidst the vineyards, experiencing a crucial moment in the production of our wines. You can hear everything around you, but you’re unable to see what’s happening. Is it the harvest? The cooperage? Are you in South America? Or Languedoc? Concentrate. Put your headphones on, turn up the volume, and test your sense of sound. Can you guess what’s going on?

Where is that whistling coming from?

1. It’s our shepherd at Los Vascos, guiding his flock.
2. No way! It’s the sound of a kettle, indicating to our Bordeaux employees that it’s tea time.
3. Oh, I recognise Saskia de Rothschild whistling to her dog Nola at Lafite.

Answer: 1) It is indeed Cristian Lotelo, the shepherd from our Chilean estate Los Vascos, guiding our black-headed sheep to their enclosure.

Cendrine Ilos is working in our vines at Duhart-Milon. What is she doing? 

1. She is building a kennel for Cabernet, our guard dog, trained to hunt rodents. 
2. She is cutting dead branches from a grapevine.
3. She is cutting the staves, oak planks that are assembled to form our barrels.

Answer: 2) Fortunately rodents don’t threaten our harvest, so Cabernet can rest easy. That is the sound of Cendrine, winegrower at Duhart-Milon, pruning the vine shoots at the end of winter.

Rest assured, you’re not at the dentist…but you’re immersed in: 

1. Our bottling line. 
2. Our cooperage. 
3. Our Bordeaux offices (we need to change this printer, we can’t hear ourselves think). 

Answer: 2) You are inside our cooperage, listening to a unique symphony: the six stages of barrel-making — assembly, heating with hooping, trimming, bottom fitting, sanding, and finishing.

A cork popping. The tinkling of glass. A liquid flowing. Strange sounds for wine lovers. What could they be? 

1. Tasting a Grand Cru Vaudésir from Domaine William Fèvre. 
2. Tasting a Le Dix from Los Vascos. 
3. Tasting a Château d’Aussières. 

Answer: You answered correctly…but you won’t get any extra points. Tasting, a corkscrew, a wine glass: the method and soundtrack are the same for all our wines.

Zzzzz…what is this familiar sound?

1. Harvesters napping after a long day in the vineyards.
2. The fan helping our brave cellar teams endure the summer at Aussières.
3. The buzzing of Los Vascos bees in Chile.

Answer 3): Trained ears will have recognised the characteristic buzzing of our Chilean bees in the Colchagua Valley, busy producing excellent honey.

No, no, you’re not getting on our nerves…

1. It’s just the donkey from our Burgundy Farm at Domaine William Fèvre saying hello.
2. Oh no! I know a Chilean sheep when I see one. I’m sure it’s a Los Vascos specimen.
3. Unless it’s the menagerie that sometimes snorts between the rows of vines at Aussières?

Answer 2): Keen ears will have recognised our donkey’s Burgundian accent. The farm at Domaine William Fèvre, our Chablis estate, also has chickens, cows and geese, not to mention our latest arrivals, our little lambs…

But is it really Carlos Gardel serenading your grapes?

1. Yes, our Chilean Carménère at Los Vascos needed a little tango to fully blossom.
2. Almost… The song “Volver” was composed by Gardel for a beautiful film, El Día Que Me Quieras, directed by John Reinhardt. We screened it in Mendoza, in front of the Bodegas CARO winery, as part of our “Cine + Vino” series.

Answer: 2) This magnificent tango, later covered by artists like Caetano Veloso, is also the last piece Carlos Gardel recorded before the plane crash that took his life in Medellín on June 24, 1935.