Bergström Winery believes that winemaking has got to be about vineyard expression! Winemaking is an agricultural pursuit and profession first and foremost. The wine that you enjoy in your glass depends on a vineyard’s and a farmer’s performance in any given year, matched with the challenges put forth by Mother Nature.
Wine represents an intoxicatingly complicated process that melds the terroir (microclimate of soil, slope, exposure, warmth, air flow) with the unique aspect of a given year’s climate and weather events which will determine sugar accumulation, acidity levels and dry extract, minerality and flavor pulled from deep within the soil’s bedrock and transformed by any number of indigenous or selected strains of yeast and bacteria under the guiding hand of a winemaker’s style and philosophy.
The winemaking process begins with the cutting of frozen vine canes in the bitter cold months of January and February and follows nature’s cycles through the spring and summer months into the golden cool months of September and October when the fruit that we have nurtured to true physiological ripeness is hand harvested into small picking bins and brought to the winery.
Josh’s Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays and Rieslings are excellent examples of old world philosophy blended with new world techniques and attention to detail. With careful hands, Josh tempers technology with a strong respect for a balanced ecosystem and sustainable agriculture. Terroir is not just a buzz-word. It exists if you let it shine through. That is why not all of the Bergström wines taste, smell or age the same way. Each vinous expression of a vineyard’s site is guided by the winemaker’s hand into a “once in a lifetime” snapshot of a year and a terroir that cannot be duplicated or standardized. At Bergström Winery, Josh believes that each vineyard’s wine and vintage should be unique.
A typical Bergström wine is opulent and rich with a fresh purity of fruit and a focused and unique aromatic profile driven by elegant textures and intense aromatics making them both food friendly wines, ageworthy wines and youthfully exuberant wines capable of delivering great pleasure upon release. Most Bergström wines should be carefully bottle aged for 1 to 3 years before opening and then should develop well for another 5 to 8 years if cellared well. Please feel free to contact the winery for consultation on when your Bergstrom wine bottles should be opened to best maximize their potential.
