The freshly hand picked clusters are loaded onto the sorting table.
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Sorters remove any substandard clusters. Only the perfect ones get through.
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The stems are removed from the clusters leaving only whole pinot noir grapes.
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The grapes are pumped to the small open top fermenters. Room is left for the expansion that will take place when the fermentation starts. The cold grapes are left to sit for 48 hours. This softens the skins and enhances the extraction of flavors and color.
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Some of the wines are fermented in tanks. Again, they go through a 48-hour “cold soak” prior to fermentation. To keep the fermentation cap wet, we use “pulse air” technology to release large bubbles of air in the bottom of the tank. These bubbles rise through the wine and thoroughly wet the cap without breaking the skin of the grapes. This keeps the bitter seeds inside the grape skins and not in the wine where they can adversely flavor the wine. This produces wine with full rich flavor but without the bitter tannins.
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After fermentation the grapes are pressed.
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Then after careful aging in small oak barrels...
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....... ..the wines are blended and packaged.
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