Our approach in the winery is one of minimal intervention. We use traditional wine making techniques. All of our wines are now certified organic and vegetarian, but please check with us for a list of vegan wines. All of our whites are vegan friendly.
Our reds are crushed, de-stemmed and vinified in open topped fermenters. Ferments are usually wild, and are hand plunged twice daily. The new wine is then kept on its skins post ferment, pressed from its skins and racked into barrel, where malolactic fermentation takes place. Most of the wines spend 18 months in barrel. We use high quality French oak barrels, except in the case of the Zinfandel where American oak is used. After maturation the wines may be gently fined with egg white prior to bottling, although often no fining is required. Winemaking techniques for reds are aimed at producing a refined and harmonious style, rather than a heavily extracted wine.
Chardonnay and Viognier are gently whole bunch pressed and allowed to settle before being racked into barrel for fermentation. At least a portion of the Chardonnay (sometimes 100%) is allowed to go through malolactic fermentation. The wines remain in barrel to develop for up to a year before being fined and bottled.
Our Gewürztraminer is typically crushed, de-stemmed and then allowed a short period of skin contact. The crushed grapes are then pressed and the juice is allowed to settle. The clarified juice is racked and transferred to a fermentation tank. A stainless steel tank is normally used, sometimes in conjunction with one or two barrel ferments.
