For many of us, there is no going back. Not only do we feel better in response to drinking clean & natural wines; but also greater complexity, depth, and vivid flavors offer us a more interesting wine. At Arterra, we take pride and pleasure opening the door to clean wines for our customers.
But why?….. “Jason – how did you get into this?”
It’s not a short answer, it rarely is when you are passionate about something…..so here you go, as short as I can be!
I’m a farmer, always have been. I grew up loving every minute of driving tractors, tending to animals, and cultivating plants…. So ultimately my goals is to grow the best quality grapes. My second goal, is in my wines, that we taste NOTHING that didn’t come from those grapes. So – its quality ingredients first. And I learned viticulture as a unique form of agriculture. Simply put, if you only want to taste characteristics originating from the grape, then you can’t add or change anything…. And thus we begin….
Taking the Leap
After 3 years of using commercial yeast and sulfite & new oak (nothing else because again I was never taught conventional winemaking, and I assumed – correctly – that good fruit would solve most of the problems), I took the leap. I alone concluded there were much more interesting characteristics in the grapes than I was getting in the wine. Or: the better my wine got the more it tasted like everybody else’s good wine.
Knowing that some of the greatest wines of all time (and that all wines prior to the 1970’s) were made with Native Yeast Fermentations, I jumped with two feet. In short – it was a heck of a learning curve. But the huge benefits simply obliged me to learn how to control for the potential problems. It was learning a new system, a system I knew would favor the high quality fruit we work so hard to grow! After all, Native Yeast Fermentations cannot happen without well cared for , cleanly grown fruit. Not always an easy task in Virginia.
The Goal:
To grow the highest quality fruit with focused intention. Maintaining a fruit focused mindset in the cellar, using ALL Native Yeast Fermentations, minimal cellar interventions and neutral oak. Showcasing a truly Virginia crafted wine allowing the terroir to lead the way, including all the aspects of Virginia soil, climate and seasonality to drive the style.
Everything solidified as Arterra was Born. “The Art of the Land”. There were several major components. First: Understanding that Quality Grapes + Native Yeast + Non-Intervention created a wine that is truly Virginia fascinates me. So new oak was gone as a final cut to anything non-grape, and now I truly dislike oak wines.
Clean Wine for your Health
My wife Sandy, as well as a significant number of our customers, have either dealt with health issues that obligate a cleaner diet, or simply have adverse reactions to conventional wines. Arterra Wines do not induce the negative impacts of conventional wine, and thus ourselves and many customers now only drink clean wines.
Screw Caps and Clean Wine:
A critical step in capturing fruit driven clean wines.
The screw cap was utilized to minimize bottle variation, bad bottles, and cork taint. Over several seasons the change to tight sealed screw caps which protect the wine, forced a reduction several times over in sulfite. This both improved the wines and the health experience.
Our fruit is harvested without residual pesticides so that the delicate Native Yeast can survive; no other additives, balancing agents, or finings; and sulfite in the range of Organic wines. Clean Wine. Better Wine.
Cheers !
Jason
