Behind this slightly barbaric-sounding word is our concern to exert greater control over all the different material and physical gestures which together make up the wine-making process.

We have already been fortunate in being able to master almost totally the parameters of our production line, from the planting of the vines to the botttling of the wine. Modern techniques, particularly through computer technology, for collecting and storing information, today enable us to keep a memory, or a « trace » of them. Detailed analysis and the cross-checking of all this data will allow us to improve our savoir-faire in the future.

For centuries now, we have been accumulating knowledge, first by word of mouth and then in writing, about the vineyard plots. This collating of information has been of considerable advantage to us over the last few years and has made it possible for us to manage the vineyard, not on a global basis, but plot by plot, in the areas of manuring, spraying, fixing of the harvest date etc. Today, we track our grapes in the finest detail from the vine via the fermentation vats, through the barrels until they arrive in the bottle.

Since the 1989 vintage, we have set up an original system of marking the bottles by laser.

This identification, which in 1995 was adapted to each individual bottle, has meant that we can follow the destiny of our wines beyond the bottling line. As a result, we now have a better idea of where they travel, we understand some of the complicated paths they take through exchanges of bottles, and can therefore learn more things which will help us to improve what we do. This marking is indelible; it reflects our growing concern to be able to check at any moment in time the authenticity of Château Margaux bottles. Technically, our responsibility ends at the bottling of the wine; however, our moral commitment to it continues until it has been drunk.