09/20/2024
Many wineries spend a lot of time telling you about how they spend a lot of money on new barrels. 60% new, blablabla. That’s cool—new barrels are great and we like em too (we only need a handful every year for the way we do things).
We love to make the most of things, and that means using barrels until they get weird on us, leak beyond repair (but most of the time a couple spiles will get us back in biz), or they cavitate after getting steamed. It’s one of the ways that our sentimental style reflects in our work.
Most barrels nowadays come with the vintage they were coopered marked on the barrel, but back in the day lots of places did it by hand. Many of our oldest barrels were second hand after two fills at their first home. But the 90-something number you see on these barrels is their first vintage. We’ve got a handful of 93 and 94 but a ton more late 90s. Some of these have been in our cellar for almost 3/4 of our winemaking history. Legends.
