We harvest at night or very early in the morning in order to make sure our grapes are as cool as possible. Then we bring them into the winery to go through cold soak maceration. Those steps are meant to impede the fermentation process until all of the crop has been distributed to its specific tank. However, once all the grapes have settled in beyond their cold soak, they are pressed and returned to the tank to begin their collective fermentation.
Denis decided we would keep our juice in their tanks around one to two months. By the end of November we will likely be moving our juice to their barrel designations. It’s in these barrels that our wine will undergo aging for one to two years, with our red wines leaning toward the later end of that timeline.
It’s a bit of waiting game, but that’s a huge part of winemaking; we control what we can and then display patience for the results. For now, our juice is staying active in their stainless steel tanks, readying themselves for the switch to wooden walls.
