We asked Angeline winemaker Bryan Davison to share his keys to winemaking success.
Davison replied by listing three things: the grapes, the growers and the winemaking process itself.
Obviously, the grapes and the growers go hand in hand. Davison works with growers in Sonoma County, Napa Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains on such important vineyard practices as pruning, irrigation patterns, pest and bacterial treatment, and harvest scheduling.
Then in the cellar, Davison takes a hands-on approach from the crushing of the grapes all the way through to the bottling of the finished wines. Depending on the variety and the style of wine desired, he’ll use French oak barrels, American oak barrels or stainless steel tanks for aging.
Let’s follow the process utilized in crafting Angeline’s 2006 Sauvignon Blanc. It began with carefully selecting grapes from the Gann Family Vineyard in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. The long, cool growing season produced berries with intense fruit flavors.
>From there, it was a matter of balancing the naturally high acidity of the grapes in order to showcase those fruit notes in an engaging and refreshing style. Much of the wine’s “brightness” can be attributed to eschewing oak barrels and opting for stainless steel tanks in the cellar.
The finished product? Delightful enough to impress hard-to-please wine judges. The wine earned gold medals in both the California State Fair Wine Competition and at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair.
If that’s not enough to convince you that Bryan Davison knows what he’s doing, one sip of this featured wine selection will.
