Vineyards
Our 40-acre ranch in the Adelaida Hills west of Paso Robles has an elevation
range from 1200 to 1600 feet and is about 7 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Our
Chardonnay is planted at the highest elevation on the property. Because
of the steep mountainsides, some parts of this vineyard are terraced to
accommodate tractor work. Our lean, calcareous, rocky limestone soils along
with the afternoon ocean influence make this an ideal location to grow
grapes for our Burgundian style Chardonnay.
Our Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot Cabernet Franc and Syrah are planted at an elevation of 1200 feet. This lower area on the property has a slightly warmer microclimate allowing these varieties to ripen fully. The limestone soils continue to keep yields low producing wines of rich, complex flavors.
A portion of our Zinfandel vines are dry-farmed and head
pruned. We receive highly
concentrated wines from this low yielding style of farming. We
offer educational tours demonstrating our farming and winemaking
techniques, click here for more information.
Vineyard Management
We are an estate winery and spend a lot of our time in our vineyards. Our focus is on growing the best possible fruit we can in any vintage year. Starting in early winter the vineyards are hand pruned and the right canes and spurs are selected for the new growing season. In the spring we employ shoot thinning and labor intensive “leaf pulling” to bring in more sunlight. This produces more ripe, jammy flavors in the wine and also helps encourage air circulation through the vines. Our crop size is reduced by hand thinning the clusters so that the vineyards achieve balance and the resulting wines will show their full Character or Terroir of the land. We have been sustainably farmed since 1991!
Winemaking
Our Philosophy in the winery is to let the Character or Terroir of the vineyards show through by minimal handling of the grapes and grape must.
Our
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot wines are produced in the classic Bordeaux
style. The grapes are 
hand
harvested and are brought into the winery in small lug boxes and put directly
into the crusher - destemmer. The grape must falls into small ½
to 1-ton open top fermentors and the selected yeast is added. We
feel the close skin to juice ratio in these small fermentors add to the
wonderful extraction in our red wines. The fermenting grape must is then
gently hand punched down 2 to 5 times a day. In about 14 days
the wine is pressed off and racked into French barrels of which 35% are
new. The wine is racked 2-3 times during the 20-month aging period
to promote clarity and brilliance. The finished wine is bottled unfined
and unfiltered.
Our Zinfandel is produced in the same manner as the Bordeaux varieties with gentle handling and small lot fermentations. We use both French and American oak in the aging regime with slightly less new oak so the wonderful fruitfulness of the Zinfandel grape is showcased.
Our Chardonnay is produced in the Burgundian style. Harvest begins in the early morning hours keeping the grapes cool. The hand-harvested grapes are brought into the winery and put directly into our small bladder press. After gentle pressing the juice is settled overnight and racked to small French oak barrels of which 35% are new. We also put the wine through malo-lactic fermentation, which helps soften the wine and give a nice creamy texture. After 9 months in barrel the wine is bottled and given an additional 3 months of bottled aging before release.