ur winemaking philosophy, much like our approach to grape growing, is centered on striking a balance between traditional and modern methods to allow our wines to express fully the place where they have grown. In order to accomplish this goal all of our grapes are hand picked into small hand-carried picking crates just when they have reached the peak of maturity. After picking they are immediately brought to our winemaking facility for sorting and the beginning of the transformation from fruit to wine.


Whites
When they reach the crush pad, the white grapes are scrupulously sorted to ensure that nothing other than clean ripe grapes has made its way into the picking bins. The bunches are gently whole cluster pressed and the juice is transferred to barrels (for the Chardonnay) or to stainless steel tanks (for the Albarino, Viognier and Gruner Veltliner) for fermentation. The juice is slowly fermented at very cool temperatures for more than a month to preserve the crisp and fruity character of the wine.


Reds & Rose

When the red grapes reach our winery, they are carefully sorted twice; once as they are loaded into the destemmer to remove any stray sticks, leaves or imperfect fruit, and a second time after the grapes have been separated from their stems to remove any stem pieces or unripe berries that have managed to come through the destemming process. This double sorting ensures that nothing other than grapes makes it into the fermentation tank, giving the fruit a chance to shine without being burdened with green stemmy or leafy flavors.

After the second sorting, the fruit is lightly crushed—just enough to open the berries, and get them ready for fermentation—then loaded into our unique "cannonball" tank for delivery to the fermentation tanks. The cannonball tank is a small loading tank with a pneumatic valve on the bottom. Each time it is filled, we move it into place above a fermentation tank, and then open the valve to let the fruit drop with gravity into the tank. This system allows fruit to be moved very gently through every stage of the process between vine and tank, and avoids any pumping, which can shear seeds and skins and introduce unwanted harshness into the wines.

Once in tank, the fruit is kept cold for 3-7 days to allow for the best possible extraction of flavors and colors. It is then fermented warm (80-90o F/ 27/32o C) and pumped over frequently to provide oxygen for the yeast and increase extraction.

After the fermentations are complete, the wine is drained off the skins. The skins are then shoveled out of the fermentation tanks and loaded into our basket press, where they are gently pressed. At this point, the wines are ready for the secondary, or malolactic fermentation. In this process malolactic bacteria transform the crisp but somewhat harsh malic acid into the gentler, suppler lactic acid, making the wine softer and more approachable.

The red wines are split into two lots, with one portion going to make a light style red, one which has lots of fruitiness, medium body, and needs much less time in barrel to reveal its charms and another portion going into our flagship full bodied, classically-styled wines meant for aging. All of these wines spend the winter months aging in barrels. The lighter reds age 16-18 months in once used French oak, and the more concentrated reds age 16-18 months primarily in new French oak barrels.

Harvest time!	Grapes ready to be picked
Just-picked bunches	Second sort
Crushed fruit dropping into cannonball tank	Cannonball loading fermentation tank
Pumping over the wine during fermentation	Post-fermentation skins ready for pressing
Pressing skins post-fermentation	Sampling wine from barrels