Winemaking

The grapes for this wine were hand harvested in the early morning and quickly brought to the winery in
small bins. The fruit was hand-sorted, both clusters and berries, and were promptly placed into
temperature controlled fermentation tanks. Prior to fermentation, we cold soaked the fruit for several
days at 40-45F, gently extracting color, flavor and tannin from the grape skins. The fermentation lasted
approximately 15 days, with twice a day pumpovers. Portions of the fruit were fermented in 500 Liters
puncheons, which allowed them to integrate with the new oak tannins and achieve warmer
fermentation temperatures allowing optimum extraction, flavor development and color stabilization.
These separate fermentation lots were then blended together after approximately 20 months in 100%
French Oak barrels (75% new) to create the most well balanced, structured blend of components.