El Rey Wine
Our El Rey vineyard is located even farther west than the Santa Rita hills appellation close to the La Purisima Mission. Wes Hagen from Clos Pepe did the original land assessment over 20 years ago. Ryan Carr of Carr vineyards planted our Pinot Noir. Santa Rita Hills is known for its 115 clone Pinot Noir so we planted half our blocks in 115. But the new rising star is 828. So our other blocks are 828. We use organic oil for mold control and do most of the pruning, weeding and leaf removal ourselves, we a little help from our friends.
El Rey wines are handcrafted every step of the way using small lots, old world techniques, and a lot of love and attention.
Fruit is handpicked before dawn so it’s nice and cold when it comes into the winery. Every cluster is hand sorted in the vineyard, and again when they are destemmed. During fermentation the lots are punched down by hand 2-3x per day, depending on the stage of fermentation. Most of the wine goes into barrel as free run juice, the remainder is pressed ever so softly. Light use of French Oak (15-25 %), Francois Freres Barrels.
