2018 Mistelle

Vine to Wine: Grape harvest has always been our favorite festive event of the year, for it celebrates not some distant event, but the fruition of hardwork. For this late harvest wine it begins at the end of October and may continue well into November, depending on how well we keep the bears at bay. Yes, bears. For this late harvest wine we cast the Brix and P.H. charts to the wind and welcome raisining and “Noble Rot”. The fruity scent of ripened grapes is wafted through the air like the lure of a dinner bell for the lurking bears. Brix rate is at 28, it’s time to harvest! It is an event wherein we invite our neighbors and their families to share the occasion, handpicking select portions during the cool of night. At first light the grapes are delivered to our processing facility, allowing a three day cool rest. This encourages fruitier flavors that occur with carbonic maseration (fermentation within the berry) to help shape the flavor of the wine. The fruit is then hand sorted on a stainless steel table before entering the crusher/destemmer, a delicate process using a plastic cage and soft paddles which helps reduce bitters from the seeds and stems. Then gently fractured by the adjustable rollers and dropped into fermenters on top of one third whole cluster. This baroque of tradition, “Old World Methode” and modern technology captures the purest floral of dark berry and wild spice and soft ripe tannins. Following a four day cold soak, cultured yeast and low heat is added to begin the fermentation process. Punch down is done three times each day, carefully monitoring brix and temperature. When the must ferments down to plus 8 brix, it’s pressed and pumped into a stainless steel tank to settle the lees, then racked off the lees and pumped into new French Oak Barriques (sixty gallon oak barrels). Space is left at the top to add five gallons of Premium California Grape Spirits. The high proof distillate stops fermentation and prevents MLF, the result is a high alcohol, sweet port-style dessert wine.