Grapes are destemmed and lightly pressed, the free run juices are cold settled to partial clarity, racked into fermentation tanks and inoculated with a pure yeast culture. A component of the ferment is transferred to new and one year old French oak barriques, treated to a slow temperature controlled fermentation at 15C for several weeks. The barrique fermented portion is lees stirred on a fortnightly basis and matured for six months to achieve maximum softness and retention of varietal flavours. The tank fermented portion is held on yeast lees stirred, racked and prepared. Vinified without any malolactic, components are assembled and filtered prior to bottling.