Harvesting Since all of our fruit comes from our own estate we are able to carefully hand harvest and then transport the fruit in small bins over a short distance, rather than on the hyways which can prematurely damage the clusters. Our grapes arrive at the crusher in superb condition, ensuring the delicate quality of the vintage. Cellar Our small winery operation affords us the luxury of several unique techniques in the cellar. Fermentation takes place in small lots, giving natural heat dissipation and allowing us to punch-down the cap by hand. During barrel aging, we rack the wine using nitrogen pressure rather than a pump.
Most pumps agitate the wine and draw oxygen into the barrel.
Our technique is not only very gentle but the surface area inside the barrel is nitrogen rather than oxygen thus reducing oxidation. One last technique that sets our winery apart is that we prefer to bottle our wine completely unfiltered. The winery's Estate Cabernet Sauvignon production averages 500 cases per year. In 1988, a new label was introduced. It is made with purchased grapes and consists of a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.