Winemaking
Peter Michael’s founding vision of terroir-driven, handmade wines in the classic European tradition comes alive under the direction of our winemaker Robert Fiore. We use time-honored winemaking methods such as French oak barrels, bâtonnage native yeasts, and hand sorting of grapes. These practices require small-lot, limited production. We appreciate every bottling as an expression of the skill of our winemaker and the terroir of our land.
Mountain Vineyards
Our wines feature the bright natural acidity produced by our cool climate vineyard locations. This delicate balance is never artificially adjusted.
Hand Harvested
All fruit is hand harvested into small lugs and gently transported to the winery to ensure that it arrives in pristine condition.
Hand Sorted Fruit
White fruit is hand sorted as whole clusters before gentle pressing. Red fruit is sorted three times, first by hand as whole clusters, then twice more as individual berries. Only the most perfect berries are fermented.
Classical Winemaking
White wines are barrel fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged on the lees with generous use of bâtonnage: stirring in the barrel. Malolactic fermentation is performed with indigenous cultures as well. Red wines undergo fermentation with indigenous yeasts in custom designed tanks before being transferred to barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging.
Limited Production
Before bottling, the wines are clarified by the traditional process of racking. With few exceptions our wines are not fined or filtered.
