Philosophy - by Justin Neufeld, Winemaker

I believe that attention to detail is what differentiates good wine from great wine.  At Gilbert Cellars the winemaking process begins in the vineyard because every viticultural decision we make affects the wine in your glass.  As the winemaker at Gilbert Cellars I am able to work intimately with the vineyard from pruning through harvest. By doing so, I gain perspective on the unique characteristics of our vineyards and am better able to tailor our viticultural and winemaking practices to enhance nuances in the wine. This process allows us to create wines that reflect the true terroir of our vineyards.

Wine-Making Techniques

All of the fruit for our red wines is hand picked into small bins and arrives at the winery in the early morning. The berries are gently separated from the stems and crushed into small 1 ton fermentation bins. These crushed berries, called the must, are then allowed to sit for 1-2 days at 40-50 F, a process called cold-soaking. This helps to extend the amount of time that the skins are in contact with the juice aiding in the maximum extraction of color and skin tannin. The must is then inoculated with specific yeast strains that have been selected for their particular impact on the wine. The chosen yeast strain will vary depending on the variety of grape to be fermented. Often times several strains will be used on the same varieties, but kept separate, to achieve greater complexity and more interesting wines.

During the primary fermentation the yeast produce carbon dioxide, which attaches to the skins and causes them to float to the top forming what is called the cap. These skins contain the color and tannin phenols that are necessary for creating the palate of the wine. The extraction of these phenols is achieved by punch downs, a process of gently pushing the cap down into the wine and mixing the skins with the wine. Punching down the cap by hand gives us more control over the type of extraction we achieve and results in wines with a softer, fuller mouthfeel. (Don’t worry, we’re not literally using our hands!)

As the fermentation progresses, more and more phenolics are extracted. The wines are tasted several times a day to monitor this progression and eventually they reach the desired level of extraction and its time to press off the wine.  We use a small, 2 ton bladder press to separate the wine from the skins. Once all the skins are in the press they are gently pressed to get the rest of the wine out. During this process the wine is tasted and the process is stopped once the wine coming out begins to become over extracted. This results in less wine, but it supports our goal of a balanced and supple mouthfeel. This pressed wine is kept separate from the rest.

From here the wines are transferred to barrel, of which most lots are 40% new oak.  Our Chardonnay is aged in 100% French oak for 10 months with batonnage lees-stirring taking place every 2 weeks to develop full-flavor and texture.  For our red wines, we use a combination of French and American coopers with different toast levels to obtain more complexity and diverse flavors. Our Rhone varieties spend about 17 months in barrel and our Bordeaux varities about 19 months at temperatures between 55-60 degrees.  After about six months of bottle ageing we can finally enjoy the fruits of our labor and share them with you.