"The effect of the destemmer was significant on our 2011 Heritage Vines Zinfandel because it removed almost all of the stems. With this wine, our goal for the maceration was to aggressively extract during the first half of fermentation and then drain and press the wine off the skins prior to drying. This technique allowed us to coax out the depth of the ripe, racy fruit that lurks within Zinfandel grapes and also to avoid some of the roughness that can be leeched out of the skins at the end of fermentation. We employed the use of both French and American oak in the aging of this wine. Toast levels on these barrels were deep enough to impart chocolate and roasted coffee features into the finished wine."