Winemaking

Texture defines our wines - that "velvet glove piece," as one aficionado explained. All the cherries and late-summer blackberries you'd expect of a cold-climate pinot noir, the floral viscosity in our pinot gris, the grapefruit and grass of great sauvignon blancs plus an unusual minerality and long finish. Our wines carry aromas and flavors not-so-different from the greats of Burgundy, Sancerre, Oregon, or New Zealand. But the texture, that defines us.

We provide dense, intense wines, without astringency. How?

Stems and seeds. When you eat grapes, you don't gnaw at the stems, or crunch the seeds to extract the essence of each cluster. You discard stems and seeds. So do we. Our long, slow fermentations extract the depth and breadth offered by the fruit, the essence of skins. But we don't throw fruit into a blender upon arrival at the winery. We gently separate grape from stem, then juice and skin from seed. Twenty-one days fermenting, not three or seven. Long, slow, gentle extractions. Free-run and a frictionless, gravity drained press. Then eleven months in barrel.

We approach winemaking with a basic premise: make wine in the vineyard, then treat the fruit as gently as humanly and mechanically possible once it hits the winery. Work with great growers; then be polite, but demanding. It raises the odds of making great wine.

Breggo uses fruit exclusively from the Anderson Valley appellation. Far be it from us to claim Anderson Valley as the greatest cold-climate growing region in the world. In due modesty, we consider it among the greats. We partner with growers of the marquis vineyards of Anderson Valley, growers whose vineyards have attracted national renown from winemakers and critics alike: Rich Savoy, the Schoeneman family of Ferrington Vineyards, Mary Elke at Donnelly Creek Vineyard, Brad Wiley from Wiley Vineyard.

The goal of making wines as gently as humanly and mechanically possible informs every operational decision. From the world's gentlest destemmer to the world's first "Bucket Press" from Pressoirs Coquard of France. We use forklift and gravity to move wine, rather than pumps. Lift and drain. Twist and pour. The magical gravity machine.

Thus far this approach has produced happy results.

We figure wine should express the flavors of the soil and the sun in this neck of the woods, the farmer, the winemaking team, the terroir. Breggo's wine is an expression of this amazing terroir, of our growers, of earth and us.

We'd like to extend a personal invitation. Please come taste our wines in bottle and in barrel. Take a private tour of our nascent but innovative operation. Sit on our porch and enjoy the view of vineyards and redwoods with a glass of wine. Once you have visited our place, and come to know our wines and us, we hope you will then tell others about us.