We like the term élevage (from élever, meaning "to bring up") in winemaking because it reflects what we believe to be the ultimate responsibility of a winemaker. Winemaking begins in the vineyard. It is our responsibility as winemakers to bring each wine up to what the vineyard ultimately has determined it can be. To respect a wine's attributes and potential, we believe that it should be made slowly, with as little intervention as possible, using gentle, non-mechanized techniques. These techniques include harvesting and sorting clusters by hand, fermenting red wines in small lots and white wines in individual barrels, punching down by hand, moving wine primarily with gravity, and minimizing or eliminating fining and filtering. We think these factors are important considerations for thoughtful, gentle winemaking.