Visit Us At Our NEW Tasting Room!

57 Front Street, Healdsburg, CA 95448. 707-431-2160
Open Saturday & Sunday 11:00-5:00 and by appointment

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Hank and Maggie Skewis founded Skewis Wines with the intention of producing high quality, vineyard designated Pinot Noirs from The North Coast region of California. The first grapes were purchased in 1994 from the Floodgate Vineyard in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley. In subsequent years we have contracted for fruit from the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Our annual production has increased slowly to the current level of 900 cases.

We believe that the finest Pinot Noir can only be made from low yielding vines located in premium growing regions. We work with growers who share this belief and rigorously limit yields by means of winter pruning, spring shoot thinning, and summer cluster thinning prior to "veraison." As a result, the average crops in the vineyards we contract with are between two and two and one-half tons per acre.

Harvest dates are determined by a mixture of sugar and acid analysis, tasting and observation of the vines and fruit. Typical numbers might be 24-25 degrees Brix and pH in the range of 3.3-3.5. Once harvested, the grapes are gently crushed into small bins, fermented quite warm (up to 90-95°F) for maximum extraction of color, phenolics and complexity of fruit, then pressed into French Oak barrels where the new wine completes primary and secondary (malolactic) fermentations. An 18 month aging period follows, during which the wines are rarely handled and clarify naturally, eliminating the need for fining or filtration prior to bottling. They are bottled and aged an additional 6 months before release in October of each year.

We feel strongly that our "hands-off" approach allows the wines to develop and exhibit all the wonderful complexities for which this delicate variety is famous. Limited production and regular evaluation in the vineyard and the cellar help us to create Pinot Noirs which we feel compare favorably with the best that the new and old worlds have to offer.