Home
Project
Wines
Vinyards
Grape-varieties
cellar
Team
photos
Contacts

CELLAR



A basement where years ago there was a grocery store has been transformed into the wine cellar of Ranchelle.
This cellar is located in the village of Poggio Murella, just two km from the vineyards. It has been equipped with everything you need to make wine in a natural way. At harvest times the hand plucked grapes are put into the destemmer which is placed directly on the tubs, in order to avoid the use of a pump. Thus the squashed grapes fall by gravity into the tubs where the fermentation takes place. At the end of fermentation (which can take up to four weeks) the must and the grape skins are transferred with buckets into an old manual winepress and pressed gently. The obtained juice is transferred by using a pneumatic membrane pump into the different vats, primarily regenerated oak barrels, but also steel vats and fiberglass containers. This pneumatic membrane pump is also used for racking, alternatively the racking is done by gravity by raising the vats with a lifter.
All fermentations are done with wild yeasts and the wines ripen without any enological additive. Sulfur dioxide has been replaced by nitrogen, an inert gas, which is used to protect the wines from unwanted contact with oxygen during racking and bottling. The wines are aged for 10 months in 500 liter used oak barrels, and another 6 months in bottles before they leave the cellar.