Winemaking

Family: This is a small, family-owned endeavor where I make micro-lots of energetic wines from specific places. I do not concoct wines for a specific “consumer segment” and I won’t trash-talk the $15 commercial wines found at discount stores. Instead, I ask you to understand that most of what those factory wineries do in their vineyards and winery is the exact opposite of what I do.

Expertise: Thirty or so harvests later my own winemaking style has evolved, which is rooted squarely in the vineyard. Crafting great wines, wines with verve, requires superb quality grapes - which can only come from unique, well-tended vineyards. I want to capture the intensity that comes from these vineyard sites, but in a balanced fashion so that my wines enhance, not overpower, a meal or occasion.

In addition to working great vineyards and doing things by hand on a small scale and in concert with nature, I shun terroir-killing practices such as machine pruning or harvesting, heavy irrigation, over-ripe, over-oaked wines, and sugary additives. Alcohol levels chez moi more often start with 12 or 13% than with a 15 or 16%. Sulphur, a natural earth mineral used successfully in winemaking for millennia, may be part of my winemaking (depending on the wine), but at levels that are de minimus. Matured gently in cellar with a light touch, clarifying my wines is done through gravity, racking and sometimes a very gentle filtration (again, depending on the wine).

Experienced, well-respected critics, sommeliers and wine stewards tell me my wines are more balanced than most; that they exude the “where” more than the “who”. Those are well-informed, serious accusations – and I am open to be charged with such heresy. Either way, I strive to make high-energy wines that are vibrant and a joy to drink.

The quantities I produce are tiny, and often hard to find. My apologies, but I make in one year what many wineries spill in a day. Here’s how to guarantee getting your hands on some bottles: join my wine club.