Our Winemaker - Brett Raven: Winemaking and farming represented a significant career change for Brett. After working as an attorney in a law office in San Francisco for nearly ten years, we had the opportunity to purchase property in Sonoma County which we did in 1995. While taking viticulture courses at Santa Rosa Junior College under Rich Thomas and installing our vineyard along with the help of veteran consultant, Bob Dempel, Brett discovered a new passion and he soon began applying himself to the art and science of winemaking.

He has literally learned the winemaking process from the bottom up. While attending U.C. Davis Extension courses and industry sponsored seminars, Brett has worked in wine production at Alderbrook Winery, Matanzas Creek Winery and Ramey Wine Cellars. This hands on winemaking experience, knowledge of vineyard practices, and close association with the winemakers who have been purchasing our grapes, have allowed Brett to learn rapidly and leverage his experiences at every stage of his professional development. At the beginning of 2009, Brett left his full time job with Ramey Wine Cellars. While Brett remains available to the team at Ramey for special projects, we felt it was important to devote more time to Frostwatch, both in the vineyard and the marketplace. Our wines currently in barrel, as well as future vintages, will be made and bottled at our new production facility, "Vinify" in Santa Rosa. Vinify specializes in providing state of the art winery facilities and equipment to small artisan producers and new ventures.

Winemaking Philosophy: Our approach to winemaking is a simple one. We rely on careful viticultural practices to produce the best fruit possible from our site. We then utilize meticulous winemaking protocols that blend the best of old-world tradition with modern winemaking technique.

Our Chardonnay is hand-harvested in the early morning hours into ½ ton bins. The grapes are then whole-cluster pressed and fermented in Burgundian barrels using indigenous yeasts. This results in a long, relatively slow primary fermentation which contributes to more complex and desirable flavor profiles. Indigenous malolactic fermentations likewise proceed slowly, often finishing up when the weather warms in the spring - some six to seven months following harvest. During this time, stirring and topping takes place weekly in order maximize wine-lees contact and minimize potential problems with oxidation. Grapes from each vineyard block are normally kept separate throughout fermentation and are evaluated for quality regularly. The final cuvee is typically moved out of oak by mid-fall which provides a long period for the marrying of flavor components from the individual lots. By the time the wine is bottled, unfiltered, early in the following year, the assemblage has become a truly integrated wine which is ready for enjoyment.

For Red Wines we begin by harvesting in very small lots which helps us to select grapes which have achieved the optimal level of physiological maturity. At the winery, the grapes are sorted, de-stemmed and crushed. The red must then undergoes an extended cold soak which allows for the extraction of complex fruit flavors. On or about the fifth day, the indigenous yeast fermentation begins. All of this takes place in special insulated bins which are significantly larger than the ½ ton picking bins frequently used in small lot processing. The insulation in the bin walls allows for better temperature control during the cold soak and subsequent fermentation. We also believe that the larger lot size is advantageous with regard to the optimization of color and tannin extraction. Following primary fermentation, the must is heated to maximize extraction of color and to volatilize excess alcohol. The wine is then pressed off the skins and put to barrel where it begins un-inoculated malolactic fermentation. Our best lots are blended early in the traditional manner. The wines are aged in French oak for 21 months and then bottled unfiltered early in the year following harvest where upon they age in-bottle until release.