Fruit was hand-picked, hand-sorted, destemmed, and crushed, then tipped directly into open vats. Each variety was fermented separately in small batch lots. The Cabernet Sauvignon component was retained as whole bunches for fermentation for additional aroma, structure, and complexity. Fermentation commenced naturally with varietally-suited XR-Grand Rouge or BDX yeast types added part-way through. Cuvaison length ranged from two to five weeks on skins, hand-plunged or run-off/returned a maximum of once per day during fermentation.