Grapes should be harvested at their optimal physiological maturity. In red varieties this means when the tannins are noble (not astringent) and color pigments are at the center of the vacuole of the skin cells to maximize their extraction during fermentation. This is a relative new concept about 15 years old. The commercial maturity instead is based only on percent of sugar (Brix) and it has and still is the most used one, but with the global warming the two maturities do not coincide any more since 40-50 years ago. This is why the alcohol % of the wines, since then, have been gradually going up to the point that then the wines were perfect on the 12-13% level in Europe and now they are in the 14% while in Napa you find that most of the wines are in the 15-16 % level. Red grapes are crushed and fermented (using.

At this point we initiate the maturation phase usually in oak barrels or in oak tanks and follow it with chemical analysis and by tasting the young wine to keep the wine healthy and evolving..

White grapes instead are not fermented with the skins, but rather just the juice (therefore they are crushed and then pressed to separate the juice from the skins and seeds and it is a more delicate process which means more attention is giving to clarifying the juice with special enzymes, prior to inoculate the yeast strain of the winemaker’s choice (there are more than 50 different yeast strains to choose) with the ability to produce different aromas and flavors that associate with those present in the skins and pulp of the berries. Certain grapes are macerated with the skins for a brief period of time to accentuate the flavors, especially in the Muscat varieties such as Canelli, Orange, Alexandria, Hamburg and others..