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Harvesting

About the Vines

“The Vineyards” is more than a name. In between the restaurants and retailers on property, you can find rows and rows of grape-producing vines. Before we opened in 2019, we worked with a local vintner partner to strategically plant our functioning vineyard. The vines were placed based on soil and access to sunshine. After three years of cultivation, we produced over 2,200 pounds of grapes in our first year. On the south end of The Vineyards near Kaiser Permanente, you’ll see Syrah vines. These grapes have a very robust and earthy taste with hints of strawberry. On the rest of the property, you’ll find our gorgeous red Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is light with medium tannins. For our first harvest, we combined the two to produce a high quality 50/50 red blend. We can’t wait to pour Porter Ranch a glass!

From Vine to Wine

Winemaking is an extraordinary process of time, precision and science to create the best wines possible from the best grapes possible. As a result, a large focus of our winemaking process is centered around the health and growth of our vines. Since vines need to establish root systems and acclimate to the weather and soil conditions, it takes several seasons of growth before flavorful wine can be produced.

Experts separate and pick the ripest grapes on site at The Vineyards before transporting them back to the winery in Westlake Village. Once at the winery, our grapes go through a hard press extraction method, which gives our wine a great body, balanced structure and the ability to age well. They then introduce yeast to digest the grape sugars and develop carbon dioxide and alcohol. The vintner then blends the wine before transferring it into barrels. During the fermentation process, the tannins from the pips and skins of the grapes help to determine the aging of the wine. After the wine ferments, the bottling process begins.

In our first harvest in the summer of 2022, we produced two barrels (or 600 bottles) of wine. Each year, as our vines grow stronger, we’ll be able to produce more wine with even more refined flavors!

Meet the Winemaker

B. Alan Geddes is an award-winning winemaker and local Viticulture and Enology consultant who started making wine almost three decades ago. Certified through his studies at the renowned University of California, Davis, Geddes became a California State Commercial Wine Judge, traveling all across the state tasting the best wines the state has to offer. His specialty is in micro-boutique, high-quality wines made from 100% locally grown vineyards.