The Vineyard

The Domaine Chater vineyard lies in the South West of France in the heart of the little known appellation of Cotes de Duras. Vineyards are centred around the historic town of Duras and its 12th century chateau. In 1937, the region was one of the first to be awarded AOC status, reflecting the quality of the wines produced. White wines are made predominantly from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon and reds from Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Wines are stylistically similar but subtly different to the neighbouring regions of Bordeaux and Bergerac.

Domaine Chater has around 9.5 hectares of vines, a third are Sauvignon Blanc, a third Merlot and the remaining third a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. We believe that great wines are made in the vineyard and we make no compromises to get the best possible results.

We aim to produce small quantities of great wine and we do this by dramatically reducing the number of bunches on each vine, producing riper, more concentrated fruit. We manually remove leaves to expose the grapes to the morning sunlight and, crucially, we harvest every single bunch of grapes by hand. We are in the process of conversion to full organic status.

All this doesn’t mean that we’re old-fashioned though. Quite the opposite! From the point at which our grapes arrive at the winery we use the very latest techniques to encourage the full expression of the different grape varieties. When our grapes reach the winery they are inspected once again to make sure that only perfect fruit makes its way into our tanks. The skins are pressed gently and techniques such as low temperature fermentation and stirring of the lees allow our wines to reach their full potential. Small tanks allow us to produce the best possible blends of the individual components.

Here's a taster of harvest time at Domaine Chater - the video shows us picking our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and Rebecca provides an insight into what's going on!

We welcome visitors throughout the year for tours of our vineyard and winery along with free tastings of a range of Chater wines. How to find us. You'll have the opportunity to taste and buy wines from across our wide range. Check out our full range of wines