Sherwood’s vineyards are meticulously managed. This is very important in a true cool climate wine region like the Waipara Valley, to maximize heat units needed for ripening, while minimizing the amount of sugar in each berry, to maintain the important balance of alcohol to flavor. Throughout the season, each individual vine is visited 10-15 times – shoot thinning, leaf plucking, cane pruning, re-trellising, etc. Once the fruit is harvested, the vineyard team hands over to the winery team. Hand plunged fermentations in small open top tanks is the norm. Fruit is left to ferment on on its own, using wild indigenous yeast, then hand plunged daily for 3 weeks. Then it is gassed and sealed, and left in contact with the skins for another 3 weeks. The juice and skins are then bucketed out by hand, meaning continuing the technique of only gravity moving the juice up to this point meaning no harsh augers or pumps “beating” the juice up causing hard harsh tannins to be extracted. Juice is racked to barrel – a select assortment of barrel types and coopers are used. Each week every barrel is tasted and topped up and a record kept of its development. Finally the barrels that make the grade are blended together and bottling occurs.