 |
All our grapes are hand picked into small bins. The action really starts once we bring them to the winery. We hand sort them before they go to the crusher; this way we can pull out any under ripe or overripe grapes, leaves or twigs. We end up with clean clusters of grapes ready to be made into wine. To help manage tannins and create a softer, fuller mouthfeel we choose not to pump grapes, but to move them throughout fermentation by gravity. We accomplish this by using a rotating forklift, transferring grapes, skins and wine that are moved only by gravity: no pumping of skins or seeds. It's just a gentler way of managing tannins and providing a softer, fuller mouthfeel.
 We move the grape clusters to the "destemmer/crusher" which pulls the berries from the stems and gently cracks them. The grapes and juice fall to a collection bin, and these are then moved by gravity to a fermentation tank. In many cases we don't even crush the berries but simply remove them from the stems, another technique to increase the wine's mouthfeel.
We ferment each lot separately in small tanks, and punch them down by hand twice each day throughout the 6 to 10 day fermentation. (By the end of harvest we're in better shape than when we started!) We know each lot and its particular character, measuring sugar, alcohol and temperature, and tasting each of them twice a day during fermentation. We use different yeast strains, specific to the variety and vineyard. Each is selected for a particular result.
In our effort to produce wines that are full and supple at the same time, wines are pressed off when they achieve the right extraction of character, fruit and tannin, even if the wine is not "sugar dry", that is, before all the sugar is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide. We then complete this primary (alcoholic) fermentation in barrel. Pressing happens in our newly designed and custom built press. Rather than a pre-programmed "press cycle", we constantly taste at the wine being pressed out of the skins and stop the process when the wine coming out loses its sweet/supple character. We get less wine, but it supports our goal of richness without a hard mouthfeel.
Our barrels are all French, about 65% new every vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille and Clos de Betz, and about 50% new for the Rhone style wines. We use a mix of coopers, toast levels and forests to achieve complexity and interest. The wines spend from about12 to 13 months in barrel for Syrah, to 14 to 16 months for Cabernet Sauvignon in the barrel.
After bottling we age the wines in our cellar for 11-12 months before release.
|
|
We have enormous respect for our growers; each is a conscientious guardian of some of the best vineyards in Washington's Columbia Valley.
