Step 1: Our 2 hectares of vines in early Summer, ripening in the warm sun. We farm listening, learning and working with nature. That means that we never water our grapes, they thrive on their own with super deep tap roots. And we never spray anything(in organic farming you can spray both Copper and Sulphate to prevent disease). We are beyond organic in our methods observing the plants, soils, insects and animals all around to ensure we have a flourishing ecosystem so our vines will be healthy enough to resist disease pressures.
Step 2: The grapes turn purpley-red. They are ripe and ready to be picked in Autumn.
Step 3: A team of 5-6 of us head into the vines early morning, before it gets hot and harvest all the grapes by hand over 1-2 days. They are loaded into the car in batches and taken to the Bodega.
Step 4: Lots of delicious grapes ready to go in the press at the Bodega.
Step 5: We use a traditional basket press and squeeze out the juice from these delicious grapes, straight into barrels or tanks. (2014: 25% tanks, 75% barrels. 2015: 50% tanks, 50% barrels). We take natural wine to the extreme as we don’t have any chemicals at all on our farm, including sulphites. That means that our wines are completely sulphite free. A beautifully raw process which is much easier on your head.
Step 6: We continue to taste the grape juice as it evolves into wine over the year and when it tastes just right we bottle it, label it and mark down the year it was harvested. It’s put into boxes ready to ship.
Step 7: And of course we keep a few bottles for ourselves to enjoy at the end of a hard day’s work!
We are proud to share TINTE with you, it truly is just grapes and sunshine, nothing added along the way. Get a bottle or two here!