Misty Rise Pinot Noir is the result of lots of personal effort on the part of Tracey, Russ, the (now adult) kids, and occasionally friends and colleagues who join in for the harvest.
Pruning takes place in late winter / early spring. We avoid spraying chemicals other than the traditional sulphur and copper, which happens from time to time throughout the growing season to keep mildew at bay. Veraison (when the grapes start turning purple) happens in January, and by February the vines are under a canopy of netting – otherwise the prolific birdlife of the neighbourhood moves in and demolishes the fruit.
By late march, the grapes are ripe, and over the course of a day with enough people to help, we pick, crush / destem and get the grapes and their juice into large fermentation vats. Depending on how warm we can keep the vats (because late March at our altitude is in the transition from summer to winter), primary fermentation with yeast selected for Pinot Noir takes one to two weeks. The longer the fermentation, the more time the wine spends on the skins, and the more tannin in the final result.
We use a classic French basket press to separate the wine from the skins, and it’s then into French oak barrels – usually three barrels plus some top-up wine in a tank, to replace the “Angel’s share” as the barrels evaporate over time. Secondary, or malolactic, fermentation takes a month if we inoculate the barrels, or about a year if we don’t. All up, the wine spends about 18 months in the barrels before we bottle. The bottling, capping and labelling takes place in our little winery as well, and the wine (protected by just the right amount of sulphur) is ready for you to enjoy a few months later.
The taste? It’s a little fruity, a little oaky, a degree of tannin, and it’s very nice!