Located on the southern flank of Mont Saint-Hilaire, the vineyard enjoys a privileged microclimate. Protégé sur trois faces par une forêt d'érables et de chênes, la pente sud maximise l'ensoleillement des vignes et favorise l'égouttement du sol. Protected on three sides by a forest of maples and oaks, the southern slope of the vineyard maximizes sunlight and promotes the drainage of the soil. The site is unique because of the mineralogical diversity of its terroir, the richness of its oak, maple and walnut forests and its climate, one of the warmest in Quebec. The winery is the dream of Monique St-Arnaud and Daniel Hamel.
Agro-economist, Daniel is the great visionary! 25 years ago 1995, he was able to see a charming vineyard in this former orchard abandoned for at least 40 years. He saw the family home and the winery that would be built there, on the mountainside. He is also a cabinetmaker in his spare time, but also welder, plumber, lumberjack .
An agronomist, Monique is also at the heart of the company. Passionate about nature, gastronomy and wines, she completed a patent in oenology and viticulture in Beaune, Burgundy. It innovates in winemaking and seeks excellence in everything. Outstanding cook, fervent jogger, you can see her little artistic side in the vineyard in her stained glass windows, mosaics and sculptures. In her CV, her favorite titles: winemaker and grandmother.
The vineyard grows Ste-Croix, Pinot Noir, Frontenac, Muscat Osceola, Dragon, Vandal-Cliche and Louise Swenson
Blue Dragon is a grape variety made from the Quebec hybridizer Mario Cliche. It has a slight vulnerability to fungal diseases, such as its cousin Vandal-Cliche, but its generosity in terms of yield and quality is worth the effort.
A grape variety with a lot of aromas, Muscat Osceola is a white Muscat vine. Producing small and medium-sized fruits, it takes a little longer to harvest. It is a hyper aromatic grape variety. It is used 100% for Muscat-type fortified wine: La Mère Veilleuse.
"An important advantage at Vignoble Les Murmures is to work on three different levels (floors). During the harvest in September, the crops are transported to the terrace, where we do the quality control, destemming, crushing and pressing of the grapes. Then the primary fermentation is started in a double-walled tank, so we can control and slow down the fermentation temperatures thanks to a cooling system to preserve the delicate aromas of the musts. When the alcoholic fermentation is completed, we can transfer the wine to the winery, one floor below, without using a pump, simply using gravity. The wine will thus be able to complete its second bacterial fermentation. We then carry out frequent racking and tank transfers in order to clean and clarify the wines naturally. And they will spend the entire winter at a temperature cool enough to naturally precipitate the excess acidity. "We work our wines as naturally as possible."
At Vignoble Les Murmures, we use winemaking methods that are unusual in Quebec. For 20 years, we have been exploring several possibilities to enhance the grape varieties we produce. Having completed a patent in oenology in 2011 in Beaune, Burgundy, we discovered new ways of doing things. Here's how we do it.
For the white wine l'Escogriffe, we ferment on lees, in French oak barrel with batonnage, which gives a "buttery" wine, complex, very round and velvety. We have barrel racks that allow us to do this stirring with ease and without having to open the barrels.
For l'Effronté red wine, we proceed to a carbonic maceration before the more traditional fermentation. This consists of macerating the whole bunches in a tank saturated with carbon dioxide for about ten days: there is then an enzymatic reaction that will exacerbate the fruity aromas of the grapes. We then make a traditional fermentation following this maceration.
As for the red wine Chenapan, we make a traditional fermentation with a long skin maceration. We age French oaks in barrels for a period of one year to 18 months depending on the age of the barrels. The secret of Chenapan is in time: no bottle is sold before 4 years.
For our fortified wines, we make natural sweet wines, such as muscats and ports: we start a fermentation that we will interrupt at a very specific time, with the addition of alcohol, which allows us to preserve residual sugars from our grapes. We then proceed to the Solera method for barrel aging.
To monitor vinification and blending, we work with the help of experts in Oenology: Jérémie d'Hauteville, as well as Patrick Fournier. We are constantly looking to improve our products.
We do not aim to make more wines, but to do better.
