Our Process
Farming
In order to make great wine you must have great fruit. Every decision we make is centered around growing the best fruit we possibly can. Where the soils allow, we dry-farm our vineyards to foster plants that are self-sufficient and not dependent on a weekly shot of water. Dry-farming forces the vines to send their roots deeper to find water and results in fruit that is more concentrated and more connected to its terroir.
We rely on natural solutions to get the most out of our vineyards. We count on our healthy population of owls and hawks for pest control, and we use cows to clean between the rows and to improve our soil health. We use only organic and biodynamic sprays to keep our fruit healthy and untainted. Our approach requires an intimate relationship with our vineyards garnered by walking them daily. Every vine at Tira Nanza is hand-pruned and hand-harvested by the same hands that make the wines.
Winemaking
We believe that our job in the winery is to guide our fruit through its transformation into wine in way that leads to its purest expression. Great wines aren’t made with chemistry sets or by blindly following a recipe, they are made with patience and a constant connection to where the wine is in its journey.
We don’t add water, sugar, or acid to change our juice and we don’t use commercial yeast in our fermentations. Instead, we rely on picking the fruit when its chemistry and ripeness are just right. We then bring the grapes into the winery and allow them to ferment on their native yeasts. Our methods demand precise management of our fermentations. We rely on our senses and observations to custom tailor our approach to each ferment and each wine.