March at Monty's Leap
Welcome to our March update.
This month, we’re deep in the 2025 vintage season, and we’d love to share a behind-the-scenes look at harvest time on the vineyard. It’s been an intense, rewarding period, and we have some great stories (and photos!) to show how our wines come to life. Grab a glass, get comfy, and join us on this journey through our vintage season.
Vintage 2025: Harvest in Full Swing
Preparing for a long night harvesting.
Our harvest kicked off under the stars. This year’s vintage kept us busy 7 days a week for 6 weeks, often working through the night and into dawn.
In the cool of late evenings, our team preps the machinery and readies our picking tubs outside the shed for night harvesting. We attach floodlights to the tractor and harvesters, illuminating the vines as if it were daytime. It’s hard work, but the cooler nighttime temperatures help preserve the grapes’ delicate flavors and aromas (not to mention it’s much more comfortable for our crew!) – all part of our commitment to quality. By sundown we’re geared up and saying a little cheer: “let the harvest begin!”
One of the joys of this season was the Merlot harvest. In the middle of one cool night, our picking crew fanned out among the rows of Merlot vines with headlamps and pruning shears. Every bunch was hand-picked with care, snipped and gently placed into tubs. The result? Tubs brimming with plump, midnight-blue Merlot grapes. As we carried these tubs into the shed, the air was filled with the sweet, jammy scent of ripe fruit. The Merlot grapes looked too beautiful not to admire – each tub a small treasure chest of what will become a silky Monty’s Leap red. We worked steadily, hands sticky with juice and big smiles on our faces at the quality of this year’s fruit.
Shortly after the Merlot, it was our Pinot Noir’s time to shine. Pinot is a delicate grape, and we treat it with kid gloves.
Just before dawn one day, we finished hand-picking our Pinot Noir, carefully laying bunches into shallow bins to avoid crushing them under their own weight.
The Pinot clusters are smaller and the berries more tender, but they were perfectly ripe – cool to the touch from the night air, with a bloom of frost-like dew on the skin.
Standing with bins of Pinot Noir grapes at our feet, we could already imagine the elegant wine they’ll yield. These little grapes pack big flavor, and we can’t wait to see how they ferment.
A rewarding finish: sunrise over the vineyard after an all-night harvest (catch the video on our Facebook page!).
Not all magic happens in daylight. After one especially long night of picking, we were rewarded with a breathtaking sunrise over the vineyard.
The first light of day broke over the rows of vines, painting the sky in hues of gold and pink. We captured this tranquil moment in a short video – if you hop over to our Facebook page, you can watch the sun rise up as our weary-but-happy team wraps up the night’s work. It’s a reminder that winemaking is a 24/7 labor of love.
With the last grapes of the night safely in, we took a moment to admire the view, and feel grateful. Harvest season may be exhausting, but moments like this sunrise make it so worth it.
Once the grapes are picked, the action moves into the winery. Over the past weeks, every fermentation tank and bin has been bubbling away with the 2015 vintage (still young wine in the making!). Here you can see a batch of our Pinot Noir right post-fermentation, the dark skins floating in a cap on top of the new wine.
After about two weeks of fermenting, the Pinot was ready for pressing – the sugar fully converted to alcohol and the wine infused with color and flavor from the grape skins. Opening the lid, we were greeted with an intense aroma of cherries, spice, and yeast – the smell of a successful ferment! This stage is crucial: we gently stir and monitor the fermenting must (that mixture of juice and skins) daily, even if it means catching naps on a cot in the shed between pump-overs. The hard work paid off; the young wines are tasting fantastic, full of vibrant fruit character.
Putting our old basket press to work on the Pinot – real handmade stuff! Pressing time means rolling out our traditional basket press. In an age of modern equipment, we stay true to our hands-on philosophy – and our trusty old wooden basket press is proof. One early morning, we loaded the fermented Pinot Noir skins and remaining juice into this old-school press.
With a bit of elbow grease (and a loud groan from the antique iron ratchet), we slowly squeezed the grapes, extracting the last rich drops of Pinot Noir wine. It’s a manual, time-consuming process – the press squeaks, the juice trickles out into a tray, and we collect it bucket by bucket – but this is real handmade stuff.
The gentle press ensures we don’t crush seeds or stems too hard, avoiding bitterness, and it’s amazing to feel so connected to the winemaking process. As the deep ruby Pinot juice flowed and the pressed skins (pomace) piled up, we all shared a proud grin. This is winemaking the old-fashioned way, and the result is wine with soul.
At the Restaurant: A Perfect Pairing
While the winery has been buzzing with harvest activity, our restaurant has been quietly doing what it does best: elevating the wine experience. This month, we don’t have a new menu item or event to announce – instead, we want to celebrate our core philosophy.
The Monty’s Leap restaurant exists to complement our wines, offering seasonal dishes that pair beautifully with what’s in your glass. From locally sourced produce to recipes crafted with our wine profiles in mind, every plate is designed to bring out the best in each varietal.
So next time you visit, treat yourself to a tasting and lunch: imagine a hearty autumn lamb dish with our Cabernet, or a fresh garden salad and goat cheese tart alongside our Sauvignon Blanc. It’s all about the synergy of food and wine, each enhancing the other’s flavors.
Come savor the season’s bounty, and let our staff guide you to the perfect Monty’s Leap pairing – a feast for your palate and a true vineyard-to-table experience.
As we conclude this whirlwind month of vintage 2025, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you. Whether you’ve been out picking grapes with us, enjoying a meal at our restaurant, or simply following our journey from afar, your support means the world to our small team. This vintage season has been full-on and unforgettable – and we’re so excited about the wines that will come of it. We hope you’ve enjoyed this inside look at our harvest.
Be sure to follow us on social media (Facebook) as the winemaking continues (barrels will soon be filled!), and as always, feel free to drop by for a chat or a tasting.
Thank you for being part of the Monty’s Leap family.
Until next time – cheers and take care!