winemaking
The building blocks of nature-earth, fire, air and water-are revealed in the spirit of our Sonoma Mountain Estate wine.
"Mike Benziger has merged with this land and the land has merged with him," observes Biodynamics Consultant Alan York. "They are one, which is part of the authenticity of Tribute-no one can replicate this wine."
Tribute Winemaking
Tribute is made using 100 percent native yeast fermentation. When fermentation is complete, the free-run wine is drained from the fermentors straight into barrels. Normally, no pressed wine is used in the making of Tribute.
Barrels are transported to the estate caves, where the wine undergoes natural malolactic fermentation in barrel from November through January. Two or three times a year the wine is racked and put back into barrels on the full moon. On the full moon, it is believed that the gravitational pull is such that it naturally compresses sediment in the wine, encouraging greater clarity.
Each of our estate's 29 blocks are picked, crushed and aged separately. We taste the wines weekly and in March, blending begins. All of the wine is blended by May, after which it goes to barrel. Total barrel aging is 20 to 22 months. In June or July of the second year, the wine is bottled. Tribute is held in bottle one year before release.
We believe nature yields its most vibrant and flavorful fruit when untouched by chemicals and pesticides. A Biodynamic vineyard is free to draw complexity, flavor and character from its roots below and abundant sunshine above. As a result, Biodynamic vineyards can produce a totally unique wine with boundless charisma.
