The 2003 Spring was one of the best seen for a while with little wind and sunny conditions bud burst and flowering conditions were nearly ideal leading to excellent fruit set. Summer continued to look very promising with dry conditions prevailing and so the fruit developed with no complications. A few incidents of rain occurred in early Autumn but this caused few problems with the Pinot Noir fruit which came in with no disease or rot.
The fruit was all hand picked at optimal maturity. On arrival at the winery the majority of the bunches were gently crushed, with about 10-20% being left as whole bunches to encourage Carbonic Maceration, a process that encourages the evolution of sweet fruit flavours. All parcels were given a short period of cold soaking before starting fermentation. During fermentation the wines were pumped over twice daily to encourage extraction of colour and flavour from the skins.
The wines were pressed at dryness after about nine days and were matured in French barrels for about 12 months. After this time each batch was individually assessed for the final blend to ensure an optimal expression of fruit.