Vinification

The themes of balance, complexity and ageability are at the forefront of how David approaches winemaking at Fulcrum. To achieve his elegant style, David utilizes time-tested Old World techniques with an emphasis on minimal intervention. He tailors his methods for each vineyard, clone, and ultimately, every barrel of wine. While his overall approach emphasizes gentle handling of the fruit and wines at every stage of development, it is not a completely hands-off style. To leverage the strengths of each individual clone or lot, David applies a range of natural methods. Whether it’s cold soaking, fermentation temperatures, punch-down timing and frequency, or natural yeast selection, each decision is made to accentuate the strengths of the fruit. This intimate, non-standardized approach yields distinctive natural wines that capture the essence of the exceptional vineyards they come from.

Some of the techniques we employ include:

• Cold Soaking
• Allow indigenous yeasts to initiate fermentation
• Use of small open top fermentors
• Gravity racked throughout the winemaking process
• Manual punch downs
• High peak fermentation temperatures
• Gentle bladder pressing

In the cellar we:

• Allow Malolactic fermentation to occur naturally in the barrel
• Minimize racking and never use pumps in the cellar to move the wine
• Use only the finest French oak barrels
• Age our wines on their primary lees, stirring through the winter
• Cellar in barrel for at least 11 months and bottle age for at least 6 months
• Ultra-low amounts of sulfur in the process. Total target amount less than 80 parts per million
• Bottle Unfined and Unfiltered for all our Pinot Noirs