Update from Leonardo Erazo, Enologist:

“The arrival of our first potential Single Vineyard of the harvest 2012! Trucks carefully arrive, all in line, disciplined and orderly like ants marching…

…stunning grapes deserve LOTS of work from the whole team, getting them as clean as possible…

…while day becomes dusk, dusk becomes night. Time forms its own rules during harvest. Workers are rewarded with the light of a full moon rising…

….it’s slow and patient work, but each bin was selectively harvested following a search for the highest potential to express each of our vineyards plots.

The team accepts that no stem is too small, and perfection is possible…

…the beautiful, full berries carefully (painstakingly!) sorted. Each helper gently removes remaining stems, leaving more of the fruit intact which helps with extended fermentation time and often results in pure, berry aroma in the wine.

Following hand-sorting, the grapes are loaded into the tanks all by gravity. Gravity is used in order to achieve the gentlest possible handling of grapes…

…with few tools but mostly with creativity and adrenaline.

The most difficult job is not the manual labor, long hours or anxiety as we rush against time, but rather,  waiting to see the development of these first Single Vineyard grapes! Plus, we can’t help feeling the full moon just might have a special effect…”