Local Specialists
We specialize in producing fine wine for private estate vineyards around Woodside, Atherton, Portola Valley, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Saratoga and La Honda whose unique attributes are highlighted by state-of-the-art equipment and old-world hand-crafted expertise.
We have been making excellent wines for our clients for over 12 years, with an ever-expanding reputation and list of awards including both ‘Best of Class’ and ‘Double Gold’ – 2 of the top 7 positions for Cabernets out of 650 wines submitted to the world famous San Francisco Chronicle Wine competition. We also make award-wining Pinots, red blends and Chardonnay.
We are also specialists in the Santa Cruz Mountains appelation’s steep slopes, shallow soils and marine layers that provide early budbreak, late harvest and cooler end-of-day temperatures so grapes mature slowly with intense and complex flavor. Only a local winery such as ourselves has the deep experience to take full advantage of the unusual terrain and grapes.
Service Options
Note – Yield depends significantly on year, varietal and terroir. A ton of grapes can require 300-700 vines. A ton yields about 2.5 barrels. A barrel yields around 22 cases after racking and filtering.
1. 100% of Yield Service
Once the fruit arrives, if 100% of the wine is destined for the private client, then we handle it as a stand alone cuvee in its own tank and barrels unless the quantity is insufficient for a solo barrel. The price varies depending on a number of winemaking options including oak (new top-quality French oak amortizes out at $4/bottle just for oak, neutral American oak is closer to $0.50/bottle, glass varies from $1 to $4.50, cork from $0.25 to $1.00, label design can be from $350 to several thousand but printing costs remain around 50c per bottle each year). As a very rough guide the project will cost between $20 and $36/bottle depending on choices made. Our standard quality spec (the same we sell our $40+ wines within) for private clients equates to $25 per bottle.
2. 20% Back For Free Service
The most typical arrangement with vineyard owners. One the fruit arrives and is weighed, we allocate and deliver 20% of that weight’s resulting wine back to the client for free. 80% of our clients operate under this system as 20% back tends to be more than sufficient for year’s entertaining, gifts and charitable donations. For example, depending on yield 500 vines’ 20% typically equates to around 8 cases or 96 bottles a year, or 2 per week every week.
Under this system the wine is hand-crafted, aged, bottled, and then labeled with the private family’s own label, all under the same extremely high La Honda standards. Then we market the remaining 80% to recover our 2 years’ storage, labor and winemaking costs.