Winemaking in Winter: Behind the Scenes
There’s so much more to winemaking than just harvesting grapes, pressing the juice, and letting it ferment. While harvest season is always the most exciting time of year for us, the real magic happens behind the scenes—day-to-day and month-to-month in the winery. This is when the heavy lifting is done. Winemakers make crucial decisions, meticulously record how the wine is aging, and analyze every step to tip the scales from good to great. It’s not enough to simply set the wine aside and forget about it. In fact, that’s risky—after all, we want our grapes to become wine, but the wine really wants to become vinegar! That’s why winemakers perform several key tasks during the aging process to ensure the best possible outcome. Two of these tasks are topping and racking.
What is Topping?
As wine matures, particularly when it’s aging in barrels, it loses volume to evaporation. This is called the “angel’s share.” While this is a natural process, the evaporated wine is replaced by air, which can cause problems such as uninhibited bacterial activity, potentially spoiling the wine. To prevent this, winemakers top off the barrels regularly with extra wine to fill any gaps. This ensures that the wine isn’t in contact with air long enough for oxidation or unwanted bacterial growth to take hold. Topping typically happens monthly to keep the aging process on track.
Racking for Clarity
Racking is the process of transferring wine from one vessel to another. Winemakers rack their wines for a variety of reasons, depending on their style and the specific varietal. One of the main goals of racking is to clarify the wine by separating it from sediment, dead yeast cells (called lees), or other particles that settle at the bottom of the tank or barrel. While the first racking usually happens after fermentation is complete, some winemakers also rack after secondary malolactic fermentation to further refine the wine and remove more sediment before returning it to the barrel to continue aging.
This Week in the Cellar
In our cellar right now, Winemaker Mark Fiore and assistant winemaker Sydney are racking our 2024 Adrienne Chenin Blanc to prepare it for bottling! Like many of our wines, we only rack Adrienne right before bottling, allowing it to age on its lees for added complexity, improved mouthfeel, and richer flavors. The ability to limit racking comes from our commitment to low-intervention winemaking and native fermentation. To pull this off, a winemaker must have a deep understanding of the grapes—how the vineyard practices, vine management, and the unique terroir influence the final wine. This mix of science and artistry is what makes our wines so special. It’s the true magic behind winemaking—and a big reason why our wines taste so incredibly good!
Taste the Dedication
We have a brand new wine line-up this month, as well as a 6-bottle tasting collection on sale, both featuring our 2023 Adrienne Chenin Blanc! Come visit us to taste the results of our winemaking efforts and dedication to minimal intervention winemaking!
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