Wine Making
At Halter Ranch, our approach to winemaking is dictated by our grape growing philosophy. It represents a synthesis of old world techniques and newer technologies designed to express the essential character, or terroir, of our property. At present we produce only red wines. The process begins with the harvesting of fully mature grapes. As harvest nears, the fruit from each vineyard block is evaluated by both taste and chemical analysis to determine its progress toward ripening and the ideal time to harvest.
All grapes are hand-harvested, by block, in the cool morning hours, with rigorous field-sorting to ensure no over-ripe or under-ripe fruit reaches the winery. We thus receive grapes of uniform maturity, which are gently de-stemmed with only minimal crushing, to preserve the purity of the fruit and avoid the extraction of bitter tannins that can occur with pumping of the must (unfermented grape juice) to the fermenters. Harvesting by block allows us to ferment in small, three and five ton lots, which affords greater quality control. After 48 hours of cold-soaking in tank to enhance color and flavor extraction, a cultured yeast is added to commence the fermentation process.
During fermentation, a combination of gentle punch-downs and irrigated pump-overs are performed to maximize extraction from the grape skins without crushing the grape seeds, which can impart bitter tannins. Fermentations generally last ten days to two weeks and are monitored daily to determine the length of time the skins should be kept in contact with the wine after fermentation completes. Total maceration time usually is 20-25 days.
Pressing is performed with a hydraulic basket press, a traditional technique which yields wine of the highest quality. Free run and press fractions from each wine lot are kept separate for the first six months to assess overall quality before initial blends are formed. French oak barrels from a variety of forests and coopers are utilized during the wine aging process, with new barrels comprising forty to sixty percent of the program. Once in barrel, the wine’s aging is augmented by micro-oxygenation, a procedure which helps stabilize color and properly structure the wine’s tannins. This process is used during the first year of aging, the period most critical to the wine’s development. Subsequently, traditional racking is employed to clarify the wine so it can be bottled without filtration.
We focus our winemaking efforts on producing red wines blended from Bordeaux and Rhone grape varieties. However, each year, when conditions are propitious, we create a proprietary blend which may contain any variety grown on the ranch. This Estate Reserve expresses the fruition of all of our grape growing and winemaking efforts.