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Part 1 of 3: How Different Oak Barrels Affect the Flavour and Structure of the Wine. Oak tanks and barrels have been used in winemaking for millennia, initially as a useful storage vessel. With the advent of stainless steel, wooden tanks were used less as stainless is much easier to maintain and keep sanitary. Almost…

Be kind, be calm, be safe, make wine… As we try to be patient, waiting for the grapes to ripen to perfection, we have been racking some of the 2019 red wines from barrels and blending. Pinot Noir, Gamay, Syrah and some of the Merlot need to be out of barrel and bottled to make…

Smoke and heat. Everyone wants to know how/if/how badly/how long they may affect the grapes and wine. The answer? So do we! Heat domes and wildfires in grape growing areas are new enough phenomena that we are learning so much year by year. The good news for us on the Naramata Bench is that we…

Through the summer of 2010, Hillside hosted a number of “terroir tastings” from barrels, illustrating the similarities and differences between four blocks of 2009 Merlot from the Naramata bench and one Oliver block.  The difference was obvious—almost a Sesame Street segment of “one of these things is not like the other” –the wine from Oliver…

Part 3 of 3: Why do we use oak in winemaking? The red edition… The use of oak in winemaking is so much more about structure than flavour: Red wines are aged (not “fermented”) in oak. The barrels are filled after fermentation and extended skin contact are completed—this is 20-30 days post-harvest. We try to…

Our July 2020 blog post gave an overview of what happens in the vineyard through the summer and how critical good vineyard management is.  “The quality of the fruit and the health of the vines are ensured through good canopy management. The canopy is made up of all the green growth which arises from the…

The term intervention in winemaking spans a spectrum of practices. In theory, zero intervention would indicate that fruit is left on the vine and no wine is made. Maximum intervention would be…well let’s come back to that. The grapevine’s primary job, in fact its only desire, is to propagate. It wants to create the condition…