We love wines with personality, and believe that most wine loses that personality when it is made quickly, or made with no risk (zero oxygen, lots of sulphur etc), or imprinted heavily by the winemaker through using too much oak or too much extraction. For that reason we have followed these basic principles:
Work with wonderful quality fruit, either grown ourselves or sourced from people that we know already and who make great wines themselves.
Be rigorous in sorting each bunch to make sure that we are only pressing perfectly ripe and healthy grapes and that the resulting juice is in great condition.
Perform an oxidative press in a vertical basket press to ensure excellent juice clarity, but build in some resistance to later oxidation.
Allow fermentation to proceed at its own pace, only intervening in the process when it is necessary to do so. This means that we perform things like cold settling pre-fermentation to rack off the gross lees efficiently, and may select a yeast that will suit a particular pressing but we will try to completely avoid using any enzymes, fining and even filtration.
We do use some sulphur to ensure the wines avoid excessive volatility, but we try to use as little as possible, typically around a third of what is usually found in a more commercial style.
Try to preserve the fruit as well as possible by avoiding excessive transfers and handling throughout the wine-making process.
No doubt this will change a little over time, but we believe that if we stick to these principals the grapes should be able to talk for themselves through our wines.
