The IDENTITY OF A GREAT WINE

The story of an encounter

Does destiny play its part in encounters like this?

When Jean-Louis Alloin and his wife Olivia decided to invest in a Bordeaux estate, Château Petit Val seemed like the best way to get back to their roots.

As a lover of wine - especially those of this appellation – Jean-Louis, a true epicurean, was attracted by the quality and unsuspected diversity of the terroirs at Château Petit Val.

He found the property so well preserved, it was as if it had been reserved for him by destiny, so after forty years in business, this son and grandson of a farming family with origins in the Beaujolais region decided to return to his kin’s traditions.

The story also includes an important encounter, when Jean-Louis and Olivia came across David Liorit, a passionate winegrower and consultant, to whom they decided to entrust this discrete jewel.

With his characteristic inventiveness and courage, David applied his talent to an innovative approach designed to produce outstanding wines expressive of their terroir, while protecting the vines, the people who work in them and the environment.

Together, they have the impression that they hold in their hands a distinctive terroir in a subtle setting. Their ambition is to combine passion and expertise to elevate Château Petit Val to be on a par with the best grands crus.

The subtle settling of a distinctive terroir

The promised land of a distinctive terroir

Seeking to achieve perfect symbiosis

Great wine is born of an implied bond between people and their terroir. It comes above all from their overriding desire to get things right, from their devotion in looking after the vines and the soil to the best of their ability and from the precision with which they craft the wines.

Everything counts, and at Château Petit Val the greatest attention is paid to working in harmony with our vines. It is our ambition to achieve perfect symbiosis between nature, the hand of Man and the wine produced, to ensure we get the very best.

The real asset of the Château Petit Val estate is the diversity and complementarity of its different terroirs. The vineyard consists of 12 hectares (30 acres) of perfectly balanced sandy clay and clayey limestone soils, ideal characteristics for wine growing.

Led by the estate manager David Liorit, our team has adopted a rational cultivation process that prioritises a balanced approach aiming to enrich our soil, protect the fruit and leave time for the benefit of our wines.

tHE Time the vine THE fruit tHE Time the vine THE fruit

tHE Time

Throughout the winemaking process, we take time: the fruit undergoes a cold soak to give it time to express itself fully, to extract the intense colour and silk of the wine. The winery and ageing cellar have been reorganised to improve wine making conditions. Château Petit Val is made in stainless steel vats, while the more concentrated Muse du Val is made by vinifying whole grapes. With great thoroughness, David Liorit meticulously blends and crafts the wines that are enhanced by time.

the vine

We aim to grow our wines while protecting our vines and their environment by sowing cereals, encouraging the use of grass as a cover crop and increasing biodiversity by planting fruit trees, hedges and by setting up hives. We control yields depending on the potential of the vines.

THE fruit

In order to protect the fruit the grapes are picked by hand and placed carefully in trays to ensure they are not damaged. They are immediately cooled to avoid oxidation and cleaned using a Viniclean machine, then sorted by hand. This way we ensure that only the very best of the harvest, the “caviar” remains.

RESEARCH & technOLOGY

Led by its estate director, David Liorit, Château Petit Val has adopted a rational cultivation method that seeks to preserve natural balances while protecting the vines and their environment, taking into account the weather in order to produce excellent fruit.

-Promoting biodiversity in the soil and ecosystem by planting cereals and maintaining a grass cover crop. Further biodiversity is achieved by planting fruit trees and hedges, and installing bee hives.

- Allowing grass to develop as a natural cover crop.

- Soil tillage using horses.

- Removal of green undeveloped fruit.

- Pruning.

- Plot-by-plot selection.

- Massal selection.

- Selecting the wood used to age the wines.

- Controlling yields depending on the potential of the vines.

- Adapting grape varieties to soil types, especially planting the Malbec and Riesling varieties ( the first time in Saint-Émilion).
- The grapes are hand-picked and carefully carried in crates.

- Use of a Viniclean® vibrating hopper to remove plant matter from the fruit.

- Innovating the fruit sorting system with a “Densibaie” sorting table – the first machine to be owned by Château Petit Val.

- Cold soak before fermentation in a vathouse and cellar redesigned to create optimal conditions for winemaking.

- Full bunch fermentation in barrels and amphorae directly imported from Italy.
- Production in HEV (High Environmental Value).

Joêl Meyzonnade

David Liorit

Olivia Alloin

Jean-Louis Alloin

Anabela de Almeida

Marie-Christine Garbay

Pascal Sales

The ambition to share enjoyment

Jean-Louis Alloin and David Liorit share the ambition of giving Château Petit Val all the advantages of a Grand Cru Classé by focussing on quality both in the vineyard and the winery.

Château Petit Val has embarked on a quality process that strives to combine the generosity of the soil with the know-how of Man, to extract the very best and propose wines worthy of the great appellations. All the hard work done since the property was acquired has definitely borne fruit.

To express the best from this terroir and ensure the estate’s long life, substantial investments have been made and work carried out: the winery has been enlarged and the stainless steel vats renovated and equipped to enable cap punching, while the cellars have been modernised. This work was done to reorganise processes and reveal the beauty and quality of this people-sized estate, while sharing our lifestyle with visitors.

What I am looking for is a good trade-off between the fruit, the mineral touch and a smooth, attractive texture.

David liorit

VINEYARD DIRECTOR

Biography