On January 12th we bottled our 2014 Aspire Reserve Marquette. A beautiful wine rich in tannins and flavors of black cherry, currant, and blackberry. It is a long process from vine to bottle for the Reserve Marquette.
The grapes, which come from our estate vineyard were picked on September 13, 2014. They immediately get crushed and destemmed and are readied for fermentation. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and once it is close to complete the grapes are pressed and the juice immediately goes into barrels along with the lees. Once in the barrels the wine is stirred every week to ten days and the barrels are topped off. This is known as sur lie aging. It allows for better extraction of flavors. While in the barrel we will work on developing better mouth feel and making a nice complex wine. The wine spends nearly 14 months in the barrel where it develops the beautiful oak overtones and tannins you will find in the wine.
All in all from it took this wine 486 days from harvest to bottling. Quite the journey!
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| Grapes ready for pressing |
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| Barrels ready for wine |
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| Bottling Day |
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| Finished wine ready for bottling |
