Justin Vineyard
JUSTIN Vineyards management techniques include vertical trellising, special resistant rootstock and clonal selection, canopy thinning, crop load management, and biodynamic farming to assure the highest quality fruit. Whole cluster pressing, extended maceration, barrel fermenting, native yeasts, no filtration, and gravity racking are just a few examples of the techniques that make JUSTIN wines stand out. JUSTIN’s vineyards incorporate a total of 160 acres. They range in elevation from 1100 feet to almost 2000 feet, are mostly dry farmed, and are primarily planted in full-bodied Bordeaux grape varietals, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Soils are mainly sedimentary limestone and clay interspersed with nutrient rich volcanic out-croppings. Replanting is done periodically.
In addition of our home estate vineyard planted in 1981 JUSTIN has expanded its vineyard acreage by contracting working with a handful of select growers in the Paso Robles appellation.
The Paso Robles appellation encompasses more than 600,000 acres and is the largest stand alone AVA in California. Numerous distinctions exist within the overall appellation and to highlight those differences 11 “sub-appellations” were established in 2007.
Vineyard Practices
Aggressively pruning the vines helps focus the plants stored carbohydrates on promoting strong early growth in shoots. When shoots reach around 6 to 8 inches, we remove any growth not intentionally left at pruning. To help intensify color, ripen tannins and maintain healthy vines, we increased sun exposure and air circulation by removing laterals and creating a tunnel through the middle of the canopy. In May, we removed smaller fruit bearing shoots that might have had difficulty ripening their clusters to decrease production and increase fruit quality. In June, an early crop removal pass was done to balance out the unusual heavy crop load. The warm summer provoked early verasion, and to ensure we had even maturity throughout the vineyard, we removed green or pink colored fruit. Yields of less than 3 tons per acre extended the growing season and we harvested most of the Cabernet Sauvignon from the middle of October through early November, depending on the micro-climate of the vineyard site.
Winemaking Practices
Our winemaking team began sampling the ripening grapes on a regular basis in early September. During the last few weeks before the grapes were picked, we tasted the skins, juice and seeds two to three times per week. We evaluated color, flavor and tannin ripeness to determine the exact harvest date.
A skilled crew handpicked the grapes into ½ ton picking bins. Once at the winery, our crusher-destemmer removed all of the stems and lightly crushed the grapes. The must (crushed grapes) was then placed in a stainless steel tank. UV-43 yeast, a strain known for its intense cherry and berry characteristics, then fermented the wine to dryness over a ten-day period. During fermentation, the fermenting wine was pumped over for about 35 minutes twice daily to extract the ripe tannins and intense flavors from the skins. After fermentation, another two to three weeks of pump overs were needed to extract the slower releasing tannins found in Cabernet Sauvignon. Malolactic fermentation took place in barrel to incorporate the complex flavors. We blended the wine in mid July of 2006 to allow the wine to integrate for 9 months prior to bottling. The wine was aged for 18 months in 24% new American oak.
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