Last Fruit Standing

Myles' Cellar Update - 9/23/25 - 10/1/25: 

"In mid-September, after a brief weather-driven slowdown in ripening of the Pinot Noir, the vines brought the fruit right into the perfect zone of ripeness. We’ve harvested the remaining Pinot Noir off the property, the Pinot Meunier, and the Popsanbro (White Pinot) fruit. Just like the Chardonnay, all the different blocks of Pinot Noir are kept separate throughout fermentation and barrel aging, allowing us to continue learning about the vineyard and have as many options as possible during assemblage. Now the focus shifts firmly into the cellar, where we will continue to manage the fermentations and barrel down the wines as they finish up!
 
We celebrated the ‘Last Fruit’ with a single pick from Block 5 Wädenswil, which, due to its small tonnage crop, we have treated in a special way, more to come on that later. The only remaining fruit on the property is the Nebbiolo. We have been watching the block, allowing it to continue hanging and ripening. Due to its much later ripening nature, looser clusters, and thicker skins, we are able to allow the vines to continue ripening the fruit through more inclement weather than Pinot Noir would typically allow. We are still anticipating our final pick of the season to be ready in the earlier part of this month.

Our sparkling base wine, which was the first to be harvested, has completed alcoholic fermentation and is now topped up in barrel, awaiting tirage bottling in May. It still has a long journey ahead of it before it will be released, but it is showing the beginning structure for a beautiful and serious sparkling Blanc de Blancs.
 
This week, the Pinot Noirs are finishing primary fermentation, we have begun draining the wine off the skins, gently pressing the skins, and transferring it all to barrel! Just like with the Chardonnay, we are keeping everything meticulously separate throughout draining, pressing, and barreling down. As the wines are heading to barrel, we are getting our first glimpse at what qualities the final wines of 2025 will have, and boy, are we excited!!"

Cheers!
Myles

Oct 1, 2025 at 5:00 PM Permalink Be the first to comment on this post

2025 Harvest Begins!

8/31/2025 - The past week in the cellar:

Harvest has begun! Last week, we started with sparkling base wine picks from our Estate's Chardonnay Blocks 13 and 4. The fruit was in beautiful condition and tasted wonderful! Our sparkling base was whole cluster pressed with minimal skin contact and sent off to neutral barrels to ferment.
 
We also picked our still Rosé of Pinot Noir last week from Block 7, which is all Pommard clone. It was also in wonderful condition and tasted to have the precursors for delicious fruity and floral notes in the final wine! It has been whole cluster pressed to tank where it is undergoing fermentation in mostly stainless steel tanks.
 
Along with processing those grapes we have been cleaning and preparing all week for more picking which began today with the first of our still Chardonnay fruit. Surveying the vineyard for optimal ripeness for our Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Nebbiolo will be a major focus in the days (and weeks) to come!

Cheers!
Myles

Sep 5, 2025 at 6:56 PM Permalink Be the first to comment on this post