The Influence of Man
Although the combination of perfect soils and climate are indispensable,
it takes the hand of man to realize a vineyard’s full potential to
produce a world-class wine. At Chateau Montelena, we have a dedicated team
of individuals with decades of experience working in our vineyards and handcrafting
our wines.
There are hundreds of decisions that go into making a bottle of wine and
it all begins in the vineyard, with the land. One of the most basic and essential
ingredients in growing a great grape is starting with healthy soils. Mother
Nature has determined the makeup of all the soil types found on our Estate
vineyard, but it is the responsibility of the vineyard team to ensure that
these soils are healthy and balanced. Instead of chemical products, we use
only sustainable, organic farming methods to promote the health of the soil
and ultimately preserve the land’s productivity. For example, instead
of using chemical pesticides, we combat destructive pests by growing cover
crops and releasing ladybugs into the vineyard.
While our vineyards are naturally low-yielding because of their rocky soil
types, we help to keep the vine yield low by dry farming as well as thinning
our crops each year. Smaller yields produce more intense, concentrated, and
complex wines. To ensure even ripening of the grapes, we carefully monitor
the canopy, removing leaves several times each growing season. For the same
reason, the vines in each vineyard block are trellised specifically for optimum
exposure to the sun and to promote air circulation. At harvest time all of
our grapes are hand-picked by our experienced vineyard crew, picking the
grapes at night to capture the natural flavors we prefer in our wine.
The wines produced by Chateau Montelena are handcrafted in our cellar by
our dedicated winemaking team. The wines express the fruit from which they
are made and the vintage in which they are grown, with all other elements
in balance to complement the fruit. To achieve this goal, we use modern crushing,
de-stemming and pressing equipment to process the grapes as gently as possible.
We then use temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to allow the wines
to ferment slowly and evenly. Once fermentation is complete, the wines are
transferred to small, French oak barrels to begin the aging process. We use
a combination of new barrels along with older, neutral barrels to ensure
that the natural flavors of the grapes are not masked by oak. After blending
and bottling, the wines receive enough aging time prior to release so that
they can be enjoyed right away or laid down to mature for years to come. |
