Chateau de Ravatys
Located at the foot of the well known Brouilly hill, in the heart of the Beaujolais, the Castle of the Ravatys was bought by an engineer from Lorraine, AUGUSTE SOLET in the middle of the19th Century. His only son died in the war in 1870. He adopted his niece Mathilde Courbe who inheritated all his posessions. With her entrepreneur mind, she efficiently managed the vineyard . Her wines obtained a bronze medal in the agricultural competition of the World Fair of 1900. Having no descendants, she bequeathed all her belongings to the Pasteur Institute in 1937, the Ravatys Castle, with its 30 hectares of vineyard, being an inalienable legacy. Since1990, the Castle and the Orangery have entirely been modernised to welcome visitors: seminars in the living room of the castle, wine tastings in the cellars, official dinners, conferences, weddings, exhibitions and concerts in the beautiful orangery, sports activities in the park...
All the profits from the castle’s activities are used by the Pasteur Institute to maintain its research effort for the benefit public health.
The property of Château des Ravatys encompasses 30 hectares of vines under the "Brouilly" and "Côte de Brouilly" trade names. The only type of vine used is the black gamay with white juice which develops fully on the well exposed slopes of mount Brouilly.
In Brouilly, the soil is fine, acidic and not very fertile. It is composed of pink granites and diorites.
In the Coast of Brouilly you can find the famous "blue stone" (métatufs and métadiorites),which are hard stones coming from vulcanos. This soil gives the wine its elegance, smoothness and its uniqueness.
The plots are mainly exposed East and South east for two trade names. The density of plantation is 10 000 feet per hectare, cut out as "gobelet" (traditional Beaujolais' cut). The plots are on average 45 to 50 year old and produce approximately 50 hectolitres per hectare.
The protection of the vineyards is done according to the principles of the reasoned vine growing (countings before intervening, respect of good agricultural practices...).
Grape harvesting is done manually and the grapes are transported through vats of average size in order to maintain the qualitative level during the in-tank operation.
The fermenting room is equipped with cement vats with an epoxy coating. The maceration is a semi-carbonic maceration (traditional Beaujolais maceration).
The press used is a very efficient pneumatic press. Its delicate pressing allows a better extraction of the substance.
Time of maceration depends from the vintage and the products. Traditionally time of maceration is around 10 days for Brouilly and 12 to 13 days for Côte de Brouilly.
The aging-cellar is one the Beaujolais' biggest. It is also composed of old casks in which wine is getting aged, before bottling.