Winemaking

At la mesa, we handcraft our wines. Our grapes are sourced whenever possible from our own estate vineyards – there is simply no better way to make wine than to walk the vineyards, control growing conditions and taste the ripening grapes to best determine when they are perfect for harvest. By growing our own grapes, we control from vine to bottle to give you the best wine tasting experience.

We utilize smaller scale winemaking equipment with an emphasis on small distinct batches and careful attention to bring out the best of the grapes from our Sierra terroir. Three generations of our family are involved in our winemaking. Here are some photos that capture how we do it.

Son Ben helping leaf the Viognier just days before heading off to college.

Small batch processing with manual punchdowns to extract the best flavors.

Gentle bladder pressing of wines.

Daughter Kat operating the labeling machine in our bottling line.