Gracia a Saint-Émilion

Saint-Émilion

Saint-Émilion is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-History:Saint-Émilion's history goes back to prehistoric times and is a World Heritage site, with fascinating Romanesque churches and ruins stretching all along steep and narrow streets.The Romans planted...

 unclassed microcuvéee winery

Winery

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...

, emerging in the late 1990s as one of the best known "Vins de garage"

Garagistes

The garagistes refers to a group of innovative winemakers in the Bordeaux region, producing "Vins de garage", "Garage wine". A group emerged in the mid 1990s in reaction to the traditional style of red Bordeaux wine, which is highly tannic and requires long ageing in the bottle to become drinkable...

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The winery also produces the second wine

Second wine

Second wine is a term commonly associated with Bordeaux wine to refer to a second label wine made from cuvee not selected for use in the Grand vin or first label...

 Angelots de Gracia.

The Gracia prodprietor is Michel Gracia, a former Saint-Émilion stonemason. First appearing in 1997 to great success. In response to the decline in fashion of the "garage wine" that has been widely predicted, Michel Gracia maintains the garagiste approach has altered and has stated, "In the early years we went for over-ripe grapes and plenty of extraction, but now we're harvesting a touch earlier and looking for more finesse".

Production

From its initial size of 1.9 hectares, the vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

 area has been expanded to 3 hectares. The grape varieties are composed of 80% Merlot

Merlot

Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...

, 15% Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone - as in the Loire's Chinon...

 and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

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The annual production of the Grand vin is typically 8,000 bottles.

External links

• Gracia official site
• Gracia technical info thunevin.com