Summary
A crushed fruit fermentation wine using hand-harvested and heavily sorted grapes. Harvested grapes may be segmented by vineyard, plot, and varietal to be treated separately throughout winemaking until the blending phase. Grapes are crushed and destemmed, before cultured or ambient yeast ferment the wine to dryness at warm temperatures in neutral vessels. Post-fermentation maceration of several weeks for further extraction is common, before pressing (keeping press fractions separate) and racking into oak barrel (a portion new, depending on the producer), where inoculated malolactic conversion will often occur. Ageing of up to 24 months in oak is common, adding texture and oak aromas. Those estates presenting for en primeur, blend their wine during this time. Finally, any fining or filtration will be light before bottling in glass under premium cork.