2008 Skipstone Oliver's Blend

Vintage
The 2008 growing season was characterized by a warm, dry spring, followed by relatively moderated temperatures during the remainder of the growing season.  Harvest season was characterized by a warm September and October.  There were several heat spikes throughout the year, beginning in the middle of May, late June, early July, late August and early September.   Hot weather in the middle of May followed by a cool spell with some rainfall created conditions for lower crop yields and thus a smaller production on our 08 vintage. The fruit that was on the vine ripened in beautiful conditions just in time for harvest.

Harvest
At Skipstone, we believe in not only treating our clusters with great care but take this attention to detail further with regard to our berries. The fruit is handharvested for optimal ripeness from our 42 individual microblocks, then transferred to the state of the art production facility at Vineyard 29 in St Helena. After destemming, a crew of ten handsort berries to remove unwanted green material, stems and unripened berries. the whole berries are then gravity fed into a tank where they undergo 'coldsoak' instead of a harsh crushing process. This allows for a very gentle extraction of the juice from the skins and creates the underlying foundation of color and structure for the wine. Temperatures are slowly increased to encourage the fermentation reaction to commence with native yeasts after which the fermented juice stays on the skins for an extended heat maceration to make the most of all the phenolyics that the skins have to offer. We make use of the gentle gravity flow system at Vineyard 29 to transfer the wine throughout this process thus interfering as little as possible with the wine development. The resulting wine is rich, fullflavored and elegant in its balance on the palate.