Moveable semi-automatic estate bottling line. |
Three thousand cases of estate wines are produced annually. Twenty-five percent of the vineyard production is used for estate wines; the balance of grapes is sold to other wineries. Winemaker, Jim Forchini, believes winemaking begins in the vineyard and vineyard design and management plus terroir influence the quality of the fruit, not just terroir alone. Jim believes the winemaker's job is to direct the wine towards a signature style which results from choices made in processing equipment, extraction techniques, and cellar decisions. He is a big proponent of co-fermenting grape varietals together rather than blending completed component wines after fermentation. He believes this results in more complex flavors & structure. Wines are aged a minimum of 18-22 months in small 228L. French & American oak barrels. New oak is balanced with neutral oak to enhance fruit flavors and wines are polished filtered. Jim believes bottling is extremely important. They own their bottling line and have total control over this final process. The winery has ten 2-ton open top stainless fermenters, 16,800 gallon barrel storage capacity, 8,000 gallon stainless storage capacity, and complete in-house capability for bottling & labeling 500 cases of wine per day. |
Jim sorting red & white grapes @ 5tons/hr |