Winemaking

Hands off. Eyes on.

Limerick Lane seems almost as if by serendipity to be the perennial underdog. We make wines that aren’t consistent with our appellation. We are located at the end of a dead end road on the wrong side of the valley. Zinfandel and Syrah are viewed as “second class” when compared to Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. Yet somehow, we consistently receive higher accolades than most of our “first class neighbors” and when compared to the great estates of the world our wines offer incredible value.

Stylistically, the wines produced here are incredibly unique. They are rich, powerful, full-bodied wines that are simultaneously strikingly fresh, bright, and nimble. These wines are unabashedly expressive – a very hard combination to envision and impossible to fake. Our winemaking approach closely mirrors our farming at Limerick Lane. In many respects, it is difficult to determine where one stops and the other starts. Both disciplines complement each other and in essence are geared towards accomplishing the same goal.

Let the vines, the dirt, the rocks, the fog, the wind speak. Intervene with as invisible a hand as possible and trust in the mystery of this extraordinary place and process. The majority of our fruit is destemmed and fermented in 4 ton open top fermenters.

Depending on the health of the fermentation, we inoculate the must but we also allow native fermentations to occur. The wine is aged in predominantly neutral French oak and lies dormant in barrel for anywhere between 12-16 months. The resulting wines speak resoundingly of the soil from which they were born. They are full-bodied and rich with a core of beautiful fresh fruit and striking acidity and structure.