My winemaking philosophy

I've been asked a number of times what our specialty wine is. I thought this would be a good topic for a blog post.

Lodi has tens of thousands of acres planted to winegrapes and we have an incredible diversity of varieties grown. I'd like to go the opposite of specializing - we'll try to buy different varieties from different growers every year and keep things new.

We are very small and have to this point only bought two ton lots hand harvested in macro bins which we pick up from the vineyard. We'll try to buy Certified Sustainable winegrapes whenever possible. Being small I'd like to try to buy a few reds which can be blended together. This was the intent in the 2014 reds which were mostly Bordeaux varietals and again in the 2015 reds which are Rhone varietals.

Now to get a bit more into the winemaking techniques. For whites I will barrel ferment them and go full malolactic. The reds will be fermented in the same macro bins (seen in the blog image). This way I can bottle them without the need for filtration which I believe often strips wines of aromatics particularly early in their bottle life, and also sets back tannic development in reds. As such some wines may develop a bit of sediment.

Being so small the options are limited but it also means the wines are simply made. I believe the result will be wines true to the vineyard which they came from and express the ripeness Lodi brings.