Bontou goes on to explain that the steaks were grilled over burned old wood from chestnut wine barrels, which was said to impart an excellent flavor to the meat. Now it is more prevalent to use dried grapevine cuttings.
When I lunched at Château la Brède, about twenty kilometers outside of Bordeaux, the steak was prepared in the following way: The meat was cooked in an open fireplace over a fire of dried vine cuttings, then served with a cooked marrow and shallot garnish that was juicy enough to be called a sauce. The vine cuttings imparted a delicious flavor and aroma to the meat. You can buy these at A little trick I learned from André Guillot: Lightly salt the meat the minute you bring it home. If you do this, you won't need to salt later, and in the end you'll use half as much salt as you would normally. Lightly salted meat will tenderize and mature in flavor when stored overnight in the refrigerator. Though some blood will run out, it is insignificant. Guillot also suggests that meat be coated lightly with grapeseed oil to keep it from drying out; he prefers grapeseed oil, because it smokes at a much higher temperature than other oils.