In the vineyards, we issue letter grade, quality "report cards" to our grape growers.  Grapes not receiving an "A" grade are no longer in our program. Today we have fewer grapes, but better grapes. Months before each harvest, Dino and his experienced team make sure we drop fruit on the ground at every vineyard, increasing richness and concentration of remaining fruit. Our estate vineyards are now mature, well cropped, and producing most of our grapes.

On the crush pad, on our pre-hopper inspection platform, at least two senior members of the winemaking team stand above every two-ton bin of grapes, rakes in hand, and visually inspect and rake through the grapes to verify high quality and to search for defects of any kind. Grapes that do not meet our exacting standards are immediately rejected.

In the cellar, we’ve reduced our total wine production by 30%, enabling our team to focus on quality, rather than quantity. As a rule we've stopped sterile filtering and de-alcoholizing our wines, in order to maximize flavor, structure, and complex mouth feel. We now eliminate the "bottom 10% per varietal, per vintage,” of every wine - and sell it on the bulk market or to other wineries – just before final blending of each varietal.   As a result, our team now has only the best blending components for each of our varietals. Consistently high quality more than justifies this plan, which we believe to be far more profitable in the long term.

Winemaker Tom Mackey and I have crossed the country these past four months to launch our new Wild Oak line, and to share and discuss the elevated quality protocol used in making every wine bearing the St. Francis label. Gratifying comments we’ve received from longtime customers, trade, and media have reinforced our belief that the story, no matter how good, simply has to be in every bottle.  Here in Sonoma, we’ve worked very hard and with great passion to make these wines.  We hope you enjoy them.