building that houses the barrel room downstairs and wine-making facility, and upstairs a tasting room and gift shop displaying—as well as the wines—Sprout’s wine-related photographs and wife Virginia’s paintings, which also have a wine theme. Part of the rest of the property is “a bit tilted,”
Sprout admits, but he figures they could plant another eight acres more, and they had already planned to put in more pinot noir. It’s a wine they had always hoped would be a notable one for them. Although it’s a finicky grape, known as the heartbreak grape, Sprout notes that being a small winery is an advantage there, because they’re able to give more attention to it, both in the vineyard and on the crush pad.
“We will remove mouldy clusters and avoid the less ripe grapes,” he notes, and they don’t use a mechanical picker.
Each cluster of the grapes was hand-sorted on the crush deck.
“It’s like making a salad with flabby old lettuce. You have to have top ingredients to produce good wines. The grapes need to be at the peak of the varietal. Because we’re small we have the luxury of being able to pick them when they’re at their peak,” he comments.
“It’s a lifestyle for me,” he adds.
As the new winery got going, he switched passions, but he would like to return to doing some photography as well now.
BRIAN SPROUT
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