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Our WinemakingBergstrom Winery believes that winemaking begins and ends in the vineyard. More than 90 percent of what you enjoy in a glass of wine depends on a vineyard's and a farmer's performance in any given year. The Winegrowing process must be a natural one, respecting the natural process and progress of the growing season, harvesting the fruit by hand only when it has reached physiological maturity and allowing a fermentation to take place that is driven by the vineyard's indigenous yeast strains. We believe that Oregon Pinot Noir must have an intense purity of fruit that can only be achieved through non-industrial, artisan winemaking. Biodynamic Vineyard ProcessIn our Estate Vineyards we farm using the Biodynamic method. We do not use any harsh systemmic fungicides, herbicides, insecticides or pesticides which will poison our soils and plants and bodies as they find their way into your wine-glasses. We use: Natural, biodynamic and elemental spray solutions to re-invigorate our soils and plants and create a natural balance. It is through balance that we can easily combat vine diseases and soil issues found in other vineyards. Natural and indigenous predatory insects and botannical teas to combat noxious pests such as leaf-hoppers, mites, spider-mites and the like. Biodynamic compost : made from organic manure and organic straw to create a perfect humus which will build and sustain a healthy and balanced soil structure for generations to come. Growing SeasonFrom Pruning to Harvest, our estate vineyards are farmed by hand with strict attention to detail. Excessive buds and shoots are removed in the early spring to focus the energy and growth of the vine into a limited amount of foliage. These remaining canes are all trained upright and orderly to create a clean and healthy canopy of vine which will efficiently capture every ray of the summer sun and allow for wind-flow through its leaves which will ward off disease. Grape clusters are removed and trimmed several times in the growing season to ensure that he crop is not too large. Too much crop will make for less concentrated fruit. Think of the upright grape-vine canopy as a solar panel and the clusters as our batteries... the less batteries we have means the more energy we can store into fewer cells, thus: more concentration. We end up cutting off 2/3 of our potential harvest to fall to the ground to compost every year in order to ensure a small, healthy concentrated crop will be harvested. Bergstrom wines aims for 1.1 to 1.5 tons per acre in our high-density vineyard blocks and 0.75-1.1 tons per acre in our older vine (lower density) blocks at the Hyland Vineyard. Bergstrom Winery harvests by hand into small quarter ton perforated bins. We harvest in the morning while the temperatures are still cool and the fruit is transported quickly to the winery where it is immediately de-stemmed into a fermentation tank. Winemaking ProcessAt the winery, a crew of dilligent sorters is ready to pull out any leaves, unripe fruit or material other than grapes off of the sorting line. This means that only clean and healthy, ripe fruit drops into the destemmer which gently removes the berries from the grape stalk. The berries fall into the waiting tank below and the stems are discarded. To the fruit in the tank we will add some dry ice which will cool down the fruit even more to ensure that we do not get an unwanted early quick fermentation. As the dry ice evaporates, it leaves a protective layer of carbon dioxide gas on top of the fruit which will protect if from oxydation while the fruit awaits its fermentation to start. Josh Bergstrom cultures native yeast strains from each of the 30+ fermentation tanks in the winery which are then added back to the fruit once they have built up a significant enough population of yeasts to start a clean and healthy fermentation. Our fruit will ferment for 7-14 days before the new wine is bled directly into French oak barrels. The remaining pumice is lightly pressed and kept separate until blending time one year later where it is either incorporated into the blends or discarded. Limited ProductionBergstrom Winery is dedicated to producing only as much wine as we can successfully farm using sustainable agricultural practices. We are currently producing 10,000 cases of wine per year so we can ensure our customers of enjoying the best in every bottle, every year. Currently our production looks like this:
The Wine GrowerSince 1999 Josh has managed our estate vineyards, the contracts between Bergstrom Winery and our dedicated growers, and has been our winemaker. For Josh it is the day to day contact and work with each vineyard that offer him the best education. "Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are personal and localized products, best learned from the vineyard and the soils where they grow." Josh now has 8 years of Oregon winamaking and vineyard experience. |
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BERGSTRÖM WINES LLC |
www.bergstromwines.com |
