VINEYARD | Our Estate vineyard is Demeter certified Biodynamic®. The highest form of organic farming in the world, Biodynamics goes beyond the elimination of chemicals to represent a complete and holistic system of agriculture that views the farm as a living organism intimately connected with its environment. The goal of a Biodynamic wine is not perfection, but rather to truly and authentically reflect the variety, vintage, place and passion of the people who make it. Demeter is a third party certifier of traditional Biodynamic practices and the oldest such agency in the United States. Certification, the ultimate guarantee of tradition and purity in the production of agricultural products, is extremely difficult to achieve and must be renewed annually.

VINTAGE | The 2008 harvest was extreme from the beginning. To start, we battled the worst frost in 40 years. Then the season ended with dramatic heat. Many grapes were thrashed before they had a chance, but the Paradiso de Maria thrived. Our Sauv Blanc missed the frost, never needed irrigation, and had a small crop that didn’t require much intervention from us. Lastly, we harvested it just before the radical heat. Paradiso de Maria had a charmed and completely natural Biodynamic life. Our only complaint - there is a thimble full at most.

WINEMAKING | Our grapes were harvested at dawn. We finished the block and the grapes were on the Crush Pad in two hours. The fruit was whole cluster pressed and the juice was gravity fed into small stainless steel barrels for fermentation. This year, for the first time, the wine was completely fermented in stainless steel barrels and sat on its lees for six months. This delicate and unusual process gives the wine some weight in its core and an interesting chalkiness that surrounds and gives depth to the acidity. The wine was moved directly from the original stainless barrels to bottle. This is probably one of the least manipulated wines you will ever taste. As much as we’d like to, there is not a lot we can take credit for. This time Mother Nature gets all the glory.