Gentle Handling | Barrel Aging

Gentle Handling
We separate each vineyard block by varietal during harvest, defining each section by maturity and richness of character. Because our winery lies in the heart of the Estate, less than one hour elapses from the time the grapes are hand-harvested into small bins to the time they are hand-sorted, de-stemmed, and conveyed to fermentation tanks. This short duration in transport time ensures minimal deterioration in fruit composition.

We cold soak the must in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks for several days prior to fermentation. This traditional process gently extracts deep color, rich flavor and phenolics from the skins.

We frequently rely upon native yeasts to ferment our wines. We believe that these indigenous yeast strains enhance our vineyard’s expression. To encourage greater extraction of flavors and structural development, we allow extended maceration following fermentation. Once the maceration process is complete, the finished wines are separated by attribute and varietal, then staged for blending and barrel ageing.