<p>The grapes were picked on the 8th February, during the early part of the morning, with the first selection of bunches being conducted in the vineyards (any unripe, rotten or bird-damaged bunches were cut and dropped on the floor). Once the 20kg picking cases reached the cellar (1km away) they were loaded directly into the cooling room and brought down to about 10⁰C. Once this temperature was achieved, the grapes were sent along a sorting table, to remove anything that may have been missed by the vineyard pickers.</p>

<p>The grapes were crushed and sent directly into the press where the juice was separated immediately from the skins and sent to a settling tank. The following day, the clear juice was racked from the gross-lees into 300L, French oak barrels, where the juice was allowed to warm up slowly and a few days later, a spontaneous fermentation kicked in. A Natural Fermentation took about 40 days to complete, adding extra complexity, balance and texture to the final result. Natural Ferments are riskier but are equally more rewarding.</p>