Winemaking Secrets: The Building Blocks of Complexity

As winegrowers, we make wine by capturing the best our vineyards have to offer. For us, this is a craft that is rooted in four generations of farming and a quarter-century of winemaking. Each vintage offers a chance to celebrate the season’s uniqueness and inspires us to adapt and refine our approach to create wines that truly embody their sense of place.

Behind the scenes, one of the lesser-known techniques we use to bring additional depth and complexity to our wines is co-fermentation. This traditional practice allows us to harmonize flavors right from the start of winemaking.

Every great wine begins in the vineyard, and we are fortunate that our home is in one of the world’s most ideal regions for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. One of the first steps we make to showcase the distinct character of each vineyard begins with the careful selection of grape clones.

A grape clone is a genetic mutation of a grape variety. In fact, there are 107 clones of Pinot Noir registered by UC Davis alone. Each clone contributes its own set of unique aromas, flavors, and textures to the final wine, much like how individual instruments in an orchestra come together to create a symphony.

While many European vineyards interplant multiple clones within a single block, we take a more modern, intentional approach. For us, each vineyard block is planted to just one clone that we harvest and ferment separately. When the stars align and flavors are complimentary, we will harvest multiple blocks and co-ferment them together to promote complexity.

Our vineyards are home to an array of clones, each contributing something unique. For instance, at Sierra Mar some of our Pinot Noir clones include 943 Clone, which adds black plum and deep herbal notes, 667 Clone which brings blue fruit flavors and moderate tannins, and Pommard Clone, which contributes bright red cherry flavors and high acidity for structure and balance.

After harvesting, co-fermentation occurs when different blocks and clones are fermented together. This helps integrate and harmonize the characteristics of each clone coming together. Think of it like adding spices in a simmering sauce, since combining ingredients early on creates a deeper integration of flavors in the final dish.

For Pinot Noir, we use stainless steel fermenters to promote flavor, by extracting phenols, color and tannins from the grape skins into the liquid wine before moving to barrel. With our Chardonnay, our low-yielding clones are pressed off their skins and fermented in barrels before extended aging. For our Syrah, we draw from Old-World traditions and co-ferment it with a small dash of Viognier, a Rhône-inspired technique that stabilizes color pigments and adds a floral lift to enhance Syrah’s bold structure.

By the time we evaluate barrels each spring, the wines are already refined in their integration, giving us an exceptional canvas to work with when selecting barrels to be blended together for bottle.

Our Legacy in Every Glass

Co-fermentation is just one of the many tools we use to bring out the best in each vineyard. Each vintage presents different building blocks for our wines since clone ripeness and yields vary each growing season. Combinations of different clones change depending on what the vintage offers us, and it makes winegrowing as much of an art as a science.

Every hand-crafted bottle reflects our family’s dedication to showcasing the distinct character of our Santa Lucia Highlands vineyards. We can’t wait for you to enjoy these latest wines.

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