Winemaking

Our winemaker’s preference is to produce wines which have complex layers of flavors, such as mineral, spice, earth, floral and fruit. In addition to the balanced flavors, you will find that the Cuda Ridge wines have balanced tannins, oak, acid and alcohol. There are several steps in the winemaking process that enables us achieve this balance in our wines. One of the most important steps is at harvest. The harvest date is chosen by our winemaker and the picking decisions are based mostly on taste. Our winemaker tends to pick on the earlier side so the fruit flavors do not overwhelm the flavor profile of the wine. By picking early, we are also able to maintain the natural acids in the fruit and produce wines with lower alcohol. We source the fruit from 8-9 of the best premier vineyards, exclusively from Livermore Valley, and our winemaker has had close working relationships with these growers since our first harvest in 2007. Our Bordeaux style wines (Purple Label and Reserve wines) use Bordeaux style yeasts during fermentation which brings out more of the earthy, mineral and spice characteristics that we are looking for. Our barrel program is carefully managed to make sure that the wines are not “over-oaked” and the blending team strives to produce wines with an Old World character. Our wines are built to age and most of our wines can easily be cellared for 10 – 15 years.