about the harvest:
Picked in the early morning hours in four separate pickings for maximum flavour diversity.
Harvest dates: 30 January and 4, 11and 13 February 2005
Yield: 3 - 8 ton/ha
Balling at harvest: 18° - 21.5° B
pH at harvest: 3.22
Total acid at harvest: 7.5 - 9.5 g/l
in the cellar :
Force cooled to 4 °C, bunch sorted, destemmed into satellite tanks and deposited into cold soak tanks for 24 hours at 8 °C. Drained and pressed, keeping the free-run and press fractions separate. Settled for 48 hours at 5 °C with only enzymes. Fermented at 11 °C for 20 to 25 days with Vin 7 and Vin 13 yeasts. Left on the lees at 10 °C for 75 days after fermentation, stirring every 10 days. The various tanks were racked and blended, adding bentonite for protein stabilisation and given a coarse sheet filtration prior to bottling. Bottled with a sterile sheet filtration, bottle aged for 3 months prior to release. Handled reductively throughout the vinification process with a lot of dry ice (CO2) and nitrogen.