Site Visit to La Crema Winery

Our VIT 1 class site visit to the La Crema winery in Windsor (generally not open for public tours) began with a sampling of their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the two varieties they focus on. Oh, the hardships we have to endure in this course! Our visit was hosted by winemakers Melissa Stackhouse and Elizabeth Grant Douglas, who described the winemaking process at La Crema and their own winemaking experiences in general. The winery began in 1979, producing 250,000 cases per year; today it produces 800,000, and is working its way to a goal of 1 million cases of wine each year. They make 5 different varities of Chardonnay, and I was proud to learn that they actually use some of the grapes grown on the college's Shone Farm.

A few of the interesting facts we learned last night: their Chardonnay grapes are machine picked, but the Pinot grapes, because they are thin-skinned and not as sturdy, are hand-picked and sorted. They prefer French oak barrels (more subtle flavor), which are made for them by World Cooperage in Missouri (a cooper is a barrel-maker) with staves harvested in their own forest overseas. This is a huge operation, which is evident in the photos that follow!