LeBard's Vineyard

Have you had a glass or two of LeBard's Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah?
If so, please leave a comment here and let the world know what you
thought of it...Good...Bad...or...Otherwise.

LeBard's Vineyard & Winemaking

LeBard's Vineyard is located 35 miles northwest of Paso Robles, California. The elevation is 1500' and the soils are sandy loam/gravel with some clay.
Organic farming is practiced although not certified. We release lacewing and lady bugs throughout the spring and early summer. Weeds are hand hoed and the middles are turned under. Occasionally we spray sulphur to help control powdery mildew.
Spring pruning shocks the vines into a later spring bud break reducing the need for sulphur spraying. Late pruning also gives us a later harvest date. We usually harvest in late September or early October when the days are cooler.
Wine is made in the vineyard. Our goal is to start with the best fruit quality possible. If we can accomplish that then winemaking becomes more like babysitting.
We hand harvest early in the morning when the fruit is still nice and cold from the night before usually 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The grapes are put into insulated bins and taken to a crusher/destemmer/sorting table where we usually do a light crush, leaving some of the berries whole.
Fruit is cold soaked for several days. We like to use frozen gallon jugs of water to keep the fruit cold. We don't use dry ice at minus 109.3 degrees Fahrenheit because we do not want any of the fruit freezing.
Punch downs are done around the clock to keep the skins in contact with the must. We want as much flavor and color as we can get.
Then we inoculate with a yeast strain based on lab results from the grape juice and past experience. We do not do native fermentation because there are just to many different yeast strains floating around out there.
Mother nature takes over from here. We "babysit" and keep a close eye on things. Hopefully we don't have to make any adjustments. Once the fermentation process is complete we press and barrel down. This is the short & sweet version for more details send me an email at the link below.

LeBard's Vineyard

LeBard's Vineyard & Winemaking

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Let The World Know

Order Wine by Email - $15 a Bottle

Winemaking Misc Slideshow