The GAEA method
The process
The process has become more deliberate with every vintage: separate the variables, taste before committing, and preserve the option to change course. These are the techniques that now define the cellar.
Read the fruit
Harvest
Sort carefully, establish the chemistry, and assign the fruit to vessels that can be followed independently.
Measure firstBuild the foundation
Crush
Destem and lightly crush, then use extraction enzyme and fermentation tannin consistently across the lots.
Lots separatedLayer the yeasts
Fermentation
Begin the whole vintage with Prelude, then split to complementary finishing yeasts after a measured 2–3 °Brix drop.
One start, four pathsProtect the options
Press
Drain free run and press gently in fractions. Keep the press wine separate so it remains a precise structural tool.
Fractions retainedFinish each lot
MLF
Let malolactic fermentation finish vessel by vessel. Protect completed lots while the slower wines remain warm and active.
Confirm, then protectOak by intention
Élevage
Match vessel, forest, toast, and surface area to each lot. Add oak in stages and let tasting—not capacity—set the dose.
Taste every two weeksBench before barrel
Blend
Test small percentages with a tasting panel, keep the lots separate, and repeat the winning trials before committing.
Prove the blendWhen the wine is ready
Bottle
Bottle only after the structure, fruit, oak, and finish read as one wine—and preserve a record for the next vintage.
Close the recordDeveloped in the cellar
Nine techniques,
one working method.
Built across vintages.
Refined by tasting.
Fermentation architecture
Prelude, then split
The 2025 Cabernet began as one coordinated fermentation with Prelude. After a 2–3 °Brix drop, the lots were inoculated separately with D254, BM4X4, Bravo, and Ruby to develop complementary profiles for later blending.
Five fermentations · one vintageLot design
Each vessel has a job
Macro bins and open-top barrels were treated as independent lots. Daily temperature, °Brix, aroma, and taste determined cap work; punch-downs started at two to three per day and tapered as extraction accumulated.
Measured, not automaticPress discipline
Free run stays free
Free-run and press fractions remain separate through early élevage. In 2025, roughly 82% of the cellar volume was free run and 18% press—giving the final blend a controlled source of color, backbone, and length.
81.8% free run · 18.2% pressHybrid élevage
Oak by surface area
Modern Cooperage 75-gallon stainless barrels provide control while rotating stave carousels supply tailored oak. Tight-grain Jupilles and Tronçais form the French-oak foundation, with measured American oak used for roundness.
Forest · toast · surface · timeStaged oak
Start below the maximum
The carousel is never filled simply because space is available. A 40–50% new-oak equivalent is installed first, tasted every two weeks, and increased only in small increments if the wine asks for more length or mid-palate.
Additive decisions stay reversibleStaggered protection
MLF finishes on its own clock
When D254 completed malolactic fermentation before the other 2025 lots, it was confirmed, protected, and cooled separately. The remaining lots stayed warm, unsulfited, and on gently stirred fine lees until complete.
Confirm malic before SO₂Cellar protection
SO₂ follows pH
Free SO₂ is managed to a molecular target rather than a generic number, then checked after movements and on a regular cellar schedule. Topping reserves are kept full, cool, and aligned before they enter a barrel.
Chemistry before habitCollaborative tasting
The bench makes the blend
Small-percentage trials are scored for fruit, oak, structure, balance, and finish. A 12-person panel set the current 2024 and 2025 directions, but every lot stayed separate for two more months before confirmation.
Taste · wait · repeatSauvignon Blanc
Texture, then brilliance
Oak Knoll Sauvignon Blanc is developed sur lie for tropical aroma, palate weight, and a creamy texture. The 2025 bottling added a second discipline: degas, settle, rack, stabilize, and polish without stripping the fruit.
Judge-validated balance · long finishFortified wine
Fortify to a sensory target
The Zinfandel and Syrah records treat fortification as a linked decision: follow the fermentation, choose the desired sweetness window, account for the spirit strength, and calculate the addition around the wine—not around a fixed recipe.
Taste · calculate · add · reassessThe working philosophy
Attention over
autopilot.
A note on intervention
The aim is not minimal intervention for its own sake. It is measured intervention: change one variable, taste the result, and preserve the fruit while structure develops.
What gets recorded
The private cellar archive tracks chemistry, lot assignments, vessel composition, oak decisions, free-run and press volumes, MLF progress, topping moves, tasting results, and the reasoning behind the final blend. The public pages use the production history and lessons while leaving the detailed laboratory tables private.
What the vintages have taught me
The 2022 wine established the traditional-barrel benchmark. The 2024 vintage introduced a longer controlled-development trial in Modern Cooperage stainless. The 2025 vintage brought the method together: designed yeast diversity, hybrid oak élevage, separate press lots, and repeatable bench trials.