Winemaking
Winemaking begins in the vineyard long before harvest. We believe great wine must be grown not just made. Numerous critical decisions are made by the winemaking and vineyard management team and carried out by skilled and hard-working vineyard crews throughout the growing season. It is the culmination of these decisions and the mercy of Mother Nature that dictate the potential of the wine.
It is then up to us to guide the wine through the evolution from grapes to bottle. We are of the philosophy that making wine requires a great deal of attention, but minimal intervention. While sugar and acid numbers are useful information for a number of winemaking decisions, harvest date is not one of them. Harvest is determined strictly on the flavor development of the grapes.
The grapes are picked by hand and brought to the winery in small boxes where they are sorted and gravity fed to small open-top fermenters. While none of the fruit is crushed, the majority of the grapes are destemmed with select lots receiving various percentages of whole clusters. We utilize cold macerations and a variety of cap management techniques throughout the fermentation process. Following fermentation and any extended maceration the grapes are gently basket pressed.
The wines then go to primarily French Oak barrels to complete malo-lactic fermentation. Aged in barrel for as little as 8 to 12 months for white wines and 18 to 36 months for reds, the wines generally receive only one movement - for blending. When the wines are ready, they go to tank for final blending and are bottled unfined and unfiltered.
