The Pedro Ximenez (PX) is pressed in our old vertical basket press; we crush the grapes by walking gently around on them for one hour in the press, slowly filling it up with the non-destemmed grapes. Then we press them directly. Throughout the process we have a combination of extraction, oxidation and maceration that gives our whites their very specific expression.
The Muscat is vinified in exactly the same way as the reds. The technique is ancient and was traditionally used in Burgundy. We use the whole non- destemmed grapes, including their stems, and empty the small 10kg cases gently into our vats, avoiding the accumulation of air and using some CO2. When the vat is full we just cover it and wait for natural fermentation, using only wild yeasts. The grapes should remain at a temperature of around 20o, not too cold in order to begin a quick, dynamic fermentation and not too warm to avoid the temperature rising above 28o during the fermentation. After fermentation has started there is no mechanical interaction such as pigeage or remontage, we just leave the grapes to ferment gently and slowly. When the fermentation is complete we press the grapes, removing all the sugar from the whole grapes and then fermenting them dry in a second fermentation without the skins. The result is a very fine, complex and fluid expression of all the different terroirs we work with.