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The making of fine wines starts in the vineyards. While nature plays a major role in determining the quality of the vintage, the viticulturist also can significantly affect the outcome of the growing season through proper vineyard management.

Grapes tend to be choosy about the ground in which they are planted. Before a site is chosen, a thorough analysis must be made to ensure that it has the right mineral content, good drainage capacity, and the proper degree of soil compaction.

The orientation of rows can vary and the density of plants per acre may range from around 600 per acre in most American vineyards to 4,000 per acre in Burgundy.

Traditionally vines were free standing. The trellis is the combination of posts and wires used by the modern grape grower to manage the growth of the vines. There are many types of trellising. The Williamsburg Winery favors the vertical system, which encourages the shoots to grow upward, allowing the sun to shine directly on the berries, a factor vital to the development of the aroma compounds and overall quality. During the winter many man-hours are spent pruning the vines to limit the number of buds and reduce the yield in order to enhance fruit quality.

Healthy berries with the proper balance of sugars, acids, and varietal flavors are the result of the right balance of sun, rain, canopy, and soil constituents. Within the leaves, photosynthesis occurs when sunshine converts carbon dioxide, water and inorganic salts into carbohydrates, and the grapes themselves are the primary beneficiaries of this process. Without enough direct sunlight, however, the clusters will not ripen sufficiently, reducing the Brix, or sugar, levels in the grapes.

At the Williamsburg Winery harvest begins in late August or early September and lasts until mid-October. The viticulturist and the winemaker must decide which characteristics they want to optimize in the grapes of a particular variety or from a particular vineyard – whether to harvest for sugar, acid, or for specific aroma compounds. Generally, white grape varieties are harvested before red varieties. It is important to pick the fruit at the peak of ripeness. Weather conditions during the last six weeks prior to harvest will have an enormous impact on the ultimate quality of the fruit. No sprays are applied during the last two weeks to eliminate the potential of any residue on the grapes.

At the Williamsburg Winery the grapes will be picked by hand (very large vineyard operations use mechanical harvesters). The grapes are picked into individual lugs, holding about 35 lbs of fruit, and then dumped into a half-ton bin. The bins are then hauled to the crush pad for processing. As the grapes arrive they are weighed and inspected for quality. If all is satisfactory the grapes are dumped into the de-stemmer/crusher which separates the berries from the stems and splits each berry allowing for easier flow of juice.

For white grapes the juice, or must, is pumped into a press. It is generally desirable to minimize the skin contact of white grapes, so they are pressed right away. From the press the juice will be pumped into a tank and held for a couple days to allow for settling of the solid fractions. Once settled and racked again, into another tank or barrels, the juice will be inoculated with yeast to start the fermentation. After the tank fermentation the wine will be racked off the lees (the remaining post fermentation solids) into another tank. Here the wine will stay until ready to blend, filter and bottle. If barrel fermented, the wine will remain in the same barrel, on the lees, until ready for blending.

For red grapes the process varies. Once they have gone through the de-stemmer/crusher they are pumped directly into a fermentation tank. Here it is critical that the juice is in contact with the skins. Once in tank the winemaking team will inoculate with yeast to start the fermentation process. Once complete, generally about 10-14 days later, the entire contents of the tank will be pumped into the press where the solids are separated from the wine. The red wine will then be pumped into a tank where it will settle for a few days. The racking and settling process takes many weeks and can require up to four different rackings.