Today, Château Margaux still uses mostly wooden vats for the vinification of the red grapes. Are we just being non-conformist, people may wonder, or keeping the tradition alive ?

Among other drawbacks, it was claimed for a long time that wooden vats were difficult to maintain and that it was impossible to control the temperature of the must efficiently in them during fermentation, with the result that very soon the arrival of stainless steel in vat cellars triggered off the same enthusiasm as formica did in kitchens during the 1950s...

Wooden vats do have their disadvantages, but these are easy to overcome. Cleaning them is just a question of work and savoir-faire; it poses no problem. Efficient temperature control requires some of the latest technology, but nowadays this is perfectly easy to acquire, whether for wooden or stainless steel vats. In fact, the real problem which remains to be solved is our relative lack of knowledge about the ideal conditions for fermentation.

Along with these negative aspects come a certain number of advantages which oenological progress has helped to reveal more clearly. Firstly, their truncated shape (they are wider than they are tall) and then their thermal inertia favour extraction phenomena, by creating a wider and closer contact between the must and the grape skins, from which the the wine draws its body and colour.

This more intimate maceration leads to richer and more tender wines, which express more fully the outstanding potential of our grapes as well as our own tradition of taste.

In addition to these technical advantages, the warm atmosphere that they create in the cellar brings an added quality of comfort and pleasure for the men, which ultimately can only be of benefit to the wine.