The Art of Winemaking: A Behind-the-Scenes Journey
Discover the precision behind your favorite pour. From French oak aging to traditional riddling, join us at the winery to see how heritage meets modern craft.
This is one of our rare Foudre barrels, where our La Réserve Fumé Blanc matures. Their large size allows the wine to refine its texture and gain depth without being overpowered by oak, preserving the crisp, expressive character of the Sauvignon Blanc.
Our Signet Shiraz matures for 12 months in a 1000-liter Foudre barrel like this one. This process gently softens the tannins and enhances the rich, layered flavors of the wine, a technique valued for centuries by winemakers.
Topping up barrels is a crucial step in the aging process. By keeping the barrel full, we prevent oxidation and preserve the wine's freshness, ensuring that every sip retains the character I intended.
Every three months, our winemakers draw a sample from the aging barrels using a 'wine thief'. This allows us to check the development of the wine, ensuring its quality and consistency as it matures.
This video shows carbonic maceration, a technique we use to create light, fruit-forward red wines. By fermenting whole grapes in a carbon dioxide-rich environment, we produce a wine with juicy berry notes, low tannins, and high freshness.
After harvesting, grapes are destemmed and crushed to release their juice. For red wines, the skins remain with the juice during fermentation to add color, flavor, and structure, a delicate balance to avoid extracting bitter tannins.
We use advanced optical sensor machines for sorting. This technology checks the size and quality of each grape, using compressed air to blow off any rejected fruit or debris, ensuring only the best fruit moves forward.
This auger, or screw conveyor, gently moves the destemmed red wine grapes into the crusher. This is the first mechanical step inside the winery, beginning the process of transforming solid fruit into liquid.
We are redefining winemaking in India with the use of these concrete tanks. They allow for micro-oxygenation, which enhances the wine's freshness and mineral qualities while retaining the pure flavor of the grape and our unique terroir.
This video shows the process of leese aging, a technique used for our Chene Grand Reserve Chardonnay. The wine rests on its yeast sediment, developing a creamy texture and complex, nutty notes that are a hallmark of premium craftsmanship.
About Inside the Winery: The Art of Winemaking
When you join us here, you are not just walking through a vineyard, you are learning to distinguish the science of the pour. Most visitors find the contrast between our massive Foudre barrels and the delicate process of manual riddling for our sparkling wines to be the most surprising part of the tour.
From Grape to Glass
Winemaking is a delicate balance of nature and precision. When you visit our cellar, you will see exactly how we manage this. We utilize advanced optical sorting machines to ensure only the highest quality grapes proceed to the crushing unit. This removes debris and ensures consistency before the fermentation process begins.
Traditional and Modern Techniques
Our approach is a blend of old-world wisdom and modern innovation. You will witness:
- Carbonic Maceration: A technique used to produce light, fruit-forward red wines with low tannins and fresh berry notes.
- Concrete Tank Aging: We use these vessels to enhance the freshness and mineral qualities of our wines while retaining the pure character of the fruit.
- Foudre and French Oak: Our large Foudre barrels refine the texture of our La Réserve range, allowing for slow maturation without the overpowering influence of small oak casks.
- Leese Aging: For wines like our Chene Grand Reserve Chardonnay, we allow the wine to rest on its yeast sediment, which builds a creamy, nutty complexity.
The Human Touch
Every three months, our winemakers draw samples using a wine thief to monitor development. It is this rigorous oversight that defines our process. Whether you are interested in the engineering of our stainless steel vats or the artisanal nature of hand-turning bottles in our riddling racks, our tours offer a transparent look at how we craft every batch.
Grover Zampa
We have been cultivating vines under the Nandi Hills sun for over three decades. Our winery is a place where heritage meets innovation, and we invite you to step inside our cellars to witness the craft behind our award-winning labels.
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