We picked the grapes at night, bringing them to the winery early in the morning to ensure that the fruit remained cold-stable. The whole clusters were gently pressed directly into barrels, allowing native yeasts—yeast already present on the grapes’ skin—to naturally begin fermentation. The barrels were kept open-top, which allowed the juice to brown and drop out any unstable pigments. After this primary, oxidative fermentation, a method that lends itself to rich and smooth wine style, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation, a secondary process in which tart malic acid is converted to creamy lactic acid. In January 2018, we blended the wine, then aged it for 11 months in a combination of 30% new French oak and 70% neutral French oak barrels.