In our cellar we strive to respect the philosophy we have throughout the year in the vineyard; interfere as little as possible. We have no reason to believe that a fanciful winery or expensive tanks with lots of gadgets do anything to make the wine any better. We are minimalists at Booker. In fact, our 2014 vintage was the first at Booker to be fermented in stainless vessels as opposed to plastic fermenters before the wine is moved into barrel.

All of our red fermentations are started using pump-overs, and then we move most of them to punch-downs once the fermentation begins. We do not rack until bottling, and usually age the Spring release wines for 18 months. We leave just under half of the wine in used French oak barrels for an extra 6-12 months to give us a unique look into the differences of each blend.

Our whites are always made a bit differently, dependent on what inspires me.  My end goal is to be different, if not a bit funky. I decided years ago that too many whites from our region are much too similar. I strive to make mine different, while preserving the qualities that I love in a white. I prefer big, round, supple whites that are not overly acidic… almost like my reds you could say. The white varies from being aged in concrete, new oak, and used oak.