Stephen Test Wines

Stephen Test Wines
3903 Parker Hill Road
Santa Rosa, California
USA 95404
Phone: (707) 544-1456
http://www.testwines.com/

Contact: Carol Test
Email: [email protected]

Welcome to my family winemaking venture! After more than 25 years making wine in Sonoma and Napa I launched my own project with our first crush in 2006. With my wife, Carol, who has been assisting with grape sorting, bin washing and bookkeeping, I am making small quantities of wine from outstanding sites around Sonoma County.

I look to traditional, Old World wines for techniques and inspiration, and I work throughout the year with our grape growers to get the fruit fully ripe. The combination of ripe grapes and traditional techniques makes possible the round, rich texture and the complexity and depth of flavor we look for in every wine. Within that framework lie the details that are appropriate for each type of wine. Every wine has to be true to the greatest tradition of its type in the world.

White wines are all barrel-fermented in the age and type of oak appropriate for the grape variety. For Sauvignon Blanc we use five-year-old French oak barrels that only give up a hint of vanilla to the wine, but add a little richness and complexity without obscuring the Sauvignon varietal character. For Chardonnay we use a mix of new and used French oak barrels from Burgundian coopers. The new barrels give the complexity of toast, spice and a little smoke that the extravagantly fruited and textured old-clone fruit deserves. The wines are handled as gently as possible at every step to eliminate oxidation detrimental to the delicacy and longevity of the wines. We use only the minimum amounts of the fining agents isinglass and bentonite to stabilize, sculpt and clarify the wine before bottling.

Winemaker: Stephen Test

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