Grapes are all hand picked and great care is taken by the group of pickers that come back every year to assist with the vintage to make sure that only the best gets put into the bucket. The fruit is picked in the cool of the evening and vintage is a fun and social occasion. Friends and family all get the opportunity to participate in some way.
Only the very best fruit has the opportunity of making a great wine. You cannot make fantastic wine without wonderful fruit. A lot of time and effort is put into the vineyard to insure that this is the case. Once the fruit has been picked it is processed immediately and then the magic starts to begin. Parcels are destemmed and crushed into tank where the natural yeast present on skins starts its work within a few days.
The wine takes usually a week or more to go through its process in open top fermenters. It is left on skins a week or two after primary ferment for cold maceration. The ferments are hand plunged and pumped over every four hours during ferment, even at night. Temperatures are closely monitored before the wine is basket pressed to extract the final juice from the berries and skins.