We’d like to thank the Vines of Mendoza (http://www.vinesofmendoza.com/)/Acequia Wine Club for the following info:

This was a special year for us here at The Vines as we completed our first harvest from vines we planted in 2007 for our first 20 Private Vineyard Estates owners. With these grapes, we are making 84 different wines. Each wine was fermented in small micro-vinification stainless steel tanks and are now safely in new oak barrels. The path from grape to wine is a combination of art and science and is carefully monitored by our team.

To give you a little insight into the process, we would like to offer a little winemaking 101. During the harvest season, the agronomists and winemaking team taste the grapes and analyze the sugar level (brix) every few days to determine the optimal time to pick to achieve each desired wine style. The grapes are picked in the early morning to preserve a cool temperature in the grape. At the winery, they go through a sorting process to take out any bunches that are under or over-ripe, are de-stemmed and then go through another sorting process to remove any extra stems or berries that just don’t make the grade.

The berries are then transferred to a stainless steel tank (we have fifty-five1,000 liter tanks!) and the winemaking team monitors the sugar level as it ferments. During the fermentation process, sugar is converted to alcohol and the brix level will decrease, along with the pH and acidity levels in the wines. The winemaking team will also carry out punch-downs and pump-overs which means they circulate the grapes to help separate the juice from the skins and seeds and extract flavors and colors which come from the skins of the grape. They do this several times a day making sure the temperatures are also in line (the juice gets hotter as the wine ferments and the yeasts become active). Once all of the sugar has converted to alcohol we drain the wine into barrel, separating the “must” (solids like skins and seeds). The must is put into a basket press for a light pressing and then is also transferred to the barrel. Once in barrel the wine undergoes a “malo-lactic” fermentation, which helps creates all of the buttery flavors you find in wine. The wines will stay in barrel for 9 to 12 months until they are ready to be bottled and listo, the wine is ready. We are extremely happy with all of the fermentations this year and can’t wait to share the finished product with you all – just give us about a year!