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Wine Making
First Bottling 2007 |
Although
our wine making began during the 2003 harvest in Dry Creek Valley - Sangiovese
grapes from Harry Merlo, north west of Healdsburg, we have
continued to venture into new varietals each season since. To date we
have won numerous awards for our wines, most important to us, the
Best of Show Red Wines at the 2007 Orange County Fair awarded to our 2005
Syrah, Dry Creek Valley, again from Harry Merlo. This wine is a show stopper
with it's incredibly full fruit and deep richness. It is remarkable
to us that our true-to-grape winemaking style; no oaking, no sulfites, no
filtering method has produced such a marvelous reward.
Our 2003
Sangiovese was so popular, there is little remaining and we consider
it precious and our private reserve. We didn't have any idea
when we started how much we would come to appreciate this humble varietal.
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Wine making
is such an amazing experience. It's a lot like making bread, only it
takes longer and weighs more. However, the process is as simple and
the most important things to remember are to pay attention to it,
smell it, taste it and keep it clean. The process that remains
complicated is the fact that the observance
of how it changes and grows into it's best moments over such a long period of time. Taking good notes about aromas, flavors and also technical details at every
stage is extremely important.
Record
keeping is an art for home winemakers; maybe almost as much as making
the wine itself which frankly takes care of itself with minor
intervention from us. Most home winemakers are commonly referred to as
'garagistas' and many are not as interested in spending too much time
in the analysis and thinking stages of learning and practicing. We take
dedicated notes about many things, starting before the crush. For more
information about the notes we take, see our wine notes page.
During the months of August through October, you will find us involved
in bottling previous vintages, doing our own crush, monitoring the primary fermentation and pressing and barreling our current vintage wines. We welcome you
to observe or participate if you wish.
At certain times of year, barrel tasting is possible.
We love sharing and discussing wine and wine making in general. To read
about the basic process,
here is a link you may find of
interest.
Please let us know if you wish to participate
in or observe our wine making project.
We also offer some of our wine making equipment on a rental basis to other home wine makers.
Please click here
for more information.
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