Month: October 2016

Fall 2016

IMG_1177First light, September 7, 2016, the picking crew arrives at the vineyard to harvest the first fruit of the season.  A beautiful block of Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir that are ripe and ready to be fermented into another great vintage of Heller Estate Organic Vineyard wine.  The berries, still cold from the night air, are handled with care as they are plucked from the vines and transported to the winery.  When the grapes arrive, the whole clusters of Chardonnay are loaded directly into the press where they are squeezed lightly to produce a lovely golden colored juice, sweet and aromatic.  The Chardonnay juice will spend a couple days in tank settling before starting the fermentation process.  Once there is no sugar left in the Chardonnay the very young wine will be racked to barrels, where it will age for at least one year. Read more…

And the Vines Grow Deeper!

FullSizeRender3When this vineyard was planted in the late 1960’s on the loamy sandy soil, we had hoped for extraordinary fruit from the conditions we have – and we got it!  The grapes planted at HELLER ESTATE ORGANIC VINEYARDS have resulted in outstanding quality and, perhaps, the best in the region – producing some outstanding wines, which have recently received laudits from California state wine competitions and the press throughout the world.

As you know, our vineyards are dry-farmed on loamy sandy soil, the vines reaching down some thirty feet, where they seek the water levels needed.  The results have been extraordinary!  To add to the continuity of this wonderful situation we have, there is now an additional factor to make these great wines by Read more…