The first year we made wine from Zinfandel grapes grown along the Trinity River near Willow Creek in Northern California. Over the years we made a variety of wines including a Zinfandel that won an award at the Home Winemakers Classic wine tasting in Napa Valley. We've had a lot of fun over the years making small quantities of wine. Our first commercial vintage was 2006 when we produced one barrel
of Syrah made exclusively from our Syrah vineyard in our backyard. The vineyard was planted in 2001. It is organically farmed and all aspects of farming are done by hand with meticulous care for each individual vine. Every year we have combined fruit with other small, like-minded grape growers in the area. Every Fall when physiological ripeness is acheived, our fruit is hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard before delivery to the winery. Our 2006 and 2007 vintages were produced at Cottonwood Canyon Winery in Santa Maria and in 2008 we began producing our wine at Terravant Wine Company in Buellton. Our 2008 Syrah won the silver medal for best Syrah over $25 at the Orange County Fair. Our children have been involved with the winemaking for many years, but beginning with the 2011 vintage our son Ryan, a Junior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo studying Viticulture/Enology, has taken on many of the decisions affecting this year's wine. This hallmark year is also the first year that we purchased grapes from the famed Thompson Vineyard in Los Alamos. Our production continues to grow and we anticipate many future vintages. We have a unique approah to winemaking. We pay careful attention in the vineyard. As the grapes ripen in the Fall we are careful to pick the grapes at the peak of their physiological ripeness, which is not to say that we wait until the potential alcohol is 15-16%. We make wine that is expressive of the varietal without characteristics that are commonly found in overripe and high alcohol wines. We are also unique in our winemaking style by learning that color extraction from the grape skins is essentially complete by the time the must (juice and skins) has fermented down to about 8 degrees brix. We then press the skins off early around 6 degrees brix and complete fermentation in new oak barrels. This process beautifully integrates the oak into the wine at an early age. Additionally we keep the wine on the lees and lees stir for six months which adds richness and mouthfeel. The wine is then racked off the gross lees and aged an additional 12 months in primarily French Oak barrels.
