About:
Vashon Winery uses grapes from eastern Washington and also grapes from western Washington. Eastern Washington is a very warm growing region with relatively cool evenings, especially in the spring and fall. Summers can be very hot. Vitis vinifera thrive in that climate, retaining the natural acidity and producing plenty of natual sugars. We use primarily Bordeaux varieties of grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Semillon.
All are red except the Semillon. The red grapes are vinified separately and kept as separate lots according to their type. The wines are almost always allowed to remain in contact with the skins, sometimes up to four or five weeks after the initial alcohol fermentation is complete, and while the malo-lactic fermentation completes. The wines are then transferred into mostly neutral oak barrels, barrels that we buy used from other wineries. We are not interested in getting heavy new oak flavors.
Rather, we are interested in the effect of aging a wine in oak barrel, and usually French oak though we also use Hungarian and American barrels. Some of the effects are: quicker clarification (than in stainless steel or polymer), better stabilization of color and flavors, a softening due we assume to oxygenation, and a growth of flavors that combine in the barrel, and finally concentration of flavors due to evaporation.
