Particularly in the english speaking world we have lionised the role and position of the winemaker as if their mastery of the art is what creates great, exclusive and expensive wines. In fact the process of wine production occurs naturally, in the absence of human input any time a collection of fruit is left in a suitable environment. The natural outcome of this process is the conversion of the wine to vinegar, so clearly human intervention is required to avoid this final step and preserve the wine for the enjoyment of the drinker, however we believe that authentic natural and truly enjoyable wine can only be produced by respecting the fundamentally natural process of vinification . The success of this natural process of winemaking depends entirely on starting with outstanding quality fruit and this is what the biodynamic method delivers, fruit with better phenolic maturity at lower sugar levels and with better acid balance.
All fruit is vinified without any additions using natural yeast. Most whites see extended skin contact and are pressed mid ferment. Reds are fermented in open vats with regular manual plunging and long post ferment maceration. Whites are aged over winter in large format oak barrels then assembled in summer for bottling. Reds are left undisturbed in small mainly old french oak for 15 months then racked once prior to assembly for bottling. All wines are bottled unfiltered under gravity. The only addition is minimal sulphur dioxide (p220) just before bottling and in addition we bottle a selection of wine without added Sulphur.
