After a decade of winemaking, our own estate vineyard produced its first harvestable crop of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. With a vineyard of our own, we’ve been able to use the techniques and wisdom passed on to us by local wine-growers, collaborators, and wine legends to cultivate perfectly specific Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for our own winemaking. Pali Vineyard spans 50 acres in Gypsy Canyon of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation in Santa Barbara County. The majority of the vineyard, about 40 acres, is planted to Pinot Noir where the vineyard’s naturally higher elevations, cool, ocean inspired climates and sandy soils produce elegant Pinot Noir grapes. On Pali Vineyard, different clones are planted and organized in different blocks, including clones 23, 2A, 115, 667, 777, 828 and Pommard. Each clone is hand-harvested separately, fermented, and aged individually before assessed and ultimately blended together to create this perfectly balanced estate grown Pinot Noir. After 5 days of cold soaking with intermittent punch-downs and pump-overs, we started the fermentation process with a few punch-downs each day. As the fermentation hit its peak activity and highest temperatures, we punched-down up to 4 times each day with additional pump-overs when necessary. As the fermentation finished, so did the actions we performed until completed. Lastly, we drained and pressed the wine into 50% new French oak barrels and 50% neutral French oak barrels. This Pinot Noir was barrel-aged in 50% new French oak barrels and 50% neutral French oak barrels for 600 days before being bottled. All of our vine-yard designated wines express the nuanced characteristics discovered on remarkably unique and excellent vineyards.