THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN MAKING WINE
Making wine is a patient craft, and timing is everything. For winemakers, there is just one chance every year to get it right. A winemaker who toils for thirty years, has just thirty chances to make remarkable wine – it’s an idea made even more poignant when we remember that a truly great wine could take up to 30 years to fully appreciate.
TWO CHOICES
The timing of Folded Hills wine is equally perplexing. We had made the decision that the goal for Folded Hills to share all good things from the land should include wine. So, with the plan to make red wine we counted backwards… it takes at least two years for a new vineyard to start bearing worthy fruit, two years for the wine to age, and at least six months after being bottled before it is first ready to drink. Not wanting to compromise standards, we leaned on Ruben to look at the other vineyards he farms with only two options in mind – either find high quality, organically grown fruit from the very best sites, or wait until Folded Hills Estate vineyard is ready to harvest. Additionally, if we were going to make wine from other vineyards we wanted to select the Santa Ynez Valley. That would give us the chance to better understand the unique signature of Rhone wines from this valley and thus ultimately better understand the distinctive voice of Folded Hills Rhone wines as well. Together, Pete Stolpman of Stolpman Vineyards, Ruben, and Angela (with baby only a few weeks away) visited neighboring vineyards owned and farmed by folks they trust.
TWO YEARS UNTIL WINE IN BOTTLE
The report back is thrilling. Folded Hills will commence its first harvest in 2015, with the help of some highly esteemed neighboring vineyards. We are honored to be working with Kimsey, Stolpman, Mcginley, Rancho Boa Vista, and John Sebastiano vineyards, sourcing around 20 tons of Grenache and Syrah from across 18 acres. We patiently look forward to sharing the wines from this harvest with you just under two years from now.
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