It's been a very fun and hectic year for us in the cellar. Even before harvest began we were busy setting up the crush pad with all our new equipment and planning how we were going to move all of our production to the winery itself. And now we can proudly say that 2017 is the first vintage of Grand Island Vineyard's wine that will be completely produced and bottled on-site at the winery! All the effort and time (and, of course, money) was well spent as harvest went incredibly smoothly and this first vintage is already shaping up to be the best yet, including a few new soon-to-be-favorites that were conceived through our new ability to experiment now that we have total control of every step of the wine-making process.

The first of these new wines to become available will be the Bridgehead Blanc: A co-fermented white blend with intense tropical fruit, rich mouthfeel, and a crisp minerality on top of a slightly sweet finish. And if you would like the opportunity to try this blend before it's bottled next month, we will be doing a free barrel tasting during Holidays in the Vineyard on December 2nd and 3rd!

Another product of our new ability to experiment will be our 2017 Chardonnay. Because of our ability to control everything ourselves we were able to split the lot apart and then ferment it in a variety of different ways, and then work to blend it back together in an incredibly balanced way to highlight each of the different methods used.  It resulted in an incredibly rich and complex wine that should appeal to a wide range of Chardonnay fans.  This wine will be bottled soon as well, and hopefully available not long after the new year.  

Finally, where we've seen some of the most benefits from doing everything in house and having access to the wines every day is in our red wine fermentations.  By having the ability to ferment everything in small bins and tasting the wine each and every day we have been able to leave fermenting juice on the skins of the grapes for upwards of a month in some cases!  This allows us to extract so much more color and flavor from the skin as well as allowing the tannins to really build up and mature long after the fermentation has finished.  This has resulted in wines with gorgeous color, incredibly concentrated flavors, and an almost unbelievably matured mouthfeel and structure.  Our current 2016 Pinot Noir is a great example of what we've been able to accomplish with this method.  As for the future, one of the projects David and I have been excited to try and make since we came to GIV was a premium Bordeaux-style blend, and with the quality of our Bordeaux varietals we believe we should have the components this year to do just that!