The Vineyards
Bien Nacido Vineyard is a large historic vineyard in Santa Maria Valley. The Syrah that Maggie picks from Bien Nacido is more northern Rhone-esque with its flavors of smoke, lavender and salt inflected oceanic aromas. The Syrah here is always the lowest in sugar and the highest in acidity and tannins. White Hawk Vineyard is a 60-acre vineyard just outside of Los Alamos, CA. The Lillian block at the top of White Hawk hill is a sand dune- literally pure sand. This site is warmer than Bien Nacido but because of its soil it retains precision and finesse.
Winemaking
In the Lillian winemaking process, clusters and individual berries are meticulously sorted by hand, berries often snipped from the stem with tiny scissors. The wines are fermented naturally in small, open top fermenters, tread by foot, siphoned into barrel – never pumped. The wines are then settled and aged on the lees before being bottled without fining or filtration.