Wine is racked 8 to 9 times over the 2 years of barrel ageing. Immediately after fermentation we usually have 10 or so lots of wine, from various parts of the vineyards. These lots are blended over the next 2 years as their nature is revealed. Wine will stay in barrels 18 to 22 months, depending on the year. No barrels in the winery are over 4 years old.
Filtration is minimal to non-existent.
Oak barrels are more important for maturing the wine than for imparting an oaky taste. Keep the wine as soft as possible, given that we are dealing with a mountain situation that produces intense wines. Capture the wine's fragrance fully. We are doing a lot of experimentation in the vineyard with grape varieties, clones, rootstocks, trellising and other vineyard practices to produce a supple, intense, fragrant, and balanced wine. We find nothing, logical or actual, that would both keep a wine from tasting good early on and lasting for a long time and gaining the nuances of complexity that can come with time in the bottle.