How We Make Our Wine
New Hampshire Wine, World Class Quality
At LaBelle Winery, every bottle of wine begins with intention and ends in celebration. Our Clean and Crafted, Minimal Intervention approach allows the natural character of the fruit to shine, without additives, artificial stabilizers, or shortcuts. From vine tending to barrel aging, each step reflects our deep commitment to quality, transparency, and craftsmanship. Plan your visit to our Amherst and Derry, NH locations to explore and taste what makes LaBelle Winery the premier destination for New Hampshire wine.
Tending the Vineyards
Throughout the season, we closely monitor our vines, ensuring they are carefully pruned, weeded, and maintained. In turn, this hands-on care promotes healthy growth and allows the vines to focus their energy on producing high-quality, flavorful fruit. Our Clean and Crafted approach begins in the vineyard, where minimal intervention means encouraging natural balance and vine health.
Harvest
The timing of our autumn harvest is crucial, as it directly impacts the grapes’ acidity, sugar content, and overall flavor. Because timing is so important, we carefully monitor temperature patterns and test Brix and pH to ensure we harvest at peak ripeness. This supports our Clean and Crafted philosophy by starting with the best natural fruit possible.
Crush
Once the grapes are harvested, we feed them into a destemmer, which gently removes stems, leaves, and vine material. We lightly crush the cleaned grapes, releasing their juice and pulp into a fermentation tank to begin the winemaking process.
Pressing White Grapes
For white wines, pressing happens before fermentation to separate the juice from the skins, seeds, and stems. As a result, this gentle process minimizes skin contact, preserving the wine’s freshness, delicate aromas, and crisp acidity. It aligns with our Clean and Crafted philosophy by handling the fruit with care from the start.
Fermentation
Next, we add yeast to the must to begin fermentation, where it converts grape sugars into alcohol, heat, and carbon dioxide. Instead of artificial stabilizers or shortcuts, we honor the integrity of the fruit by using a thoughtful, natural process.
Pressing Red Grapes
After fermentation is complete, we press the red grapes to ensure maximum extraction of the grape skins’ essential qualities. The grape skins give the fermenting juice rich color, structured tannins, and deep flavor compounds, elements that are crucial to the body, aging potential, and character of red wines. This traditional method allows the wine to fully absorb the grape’s natural attributes before we gently press off the skins, leaving behind a vibrant, robust wine ready for aging. a
Aging Red Wine
Following pressing and fermentation, we age the wine in French, American, or Hungarian oak barrels which contribute to the wines flavor and complexity while our Minimal Intervention philosophy ensures the wine develops gracefully without unnecessary additives or manipulation.
Filtering and Bottling
Our crossflow filtering system is designed to reduce filtration time and energy consumption. For example, filtering 33,000 gallons of wine takes only 8-9 hours and requires just one filtration over three filters, compared to traditional methods that take 16 hours and require three filtrations. Because of this, we complete the entire bottling process efficiently and sustainably. When the wine is ready, we wash, sparge, fill, cork, seal, and label each bottle in one complete process.
Enjoying!
Sharing and savoring the wine is the heart of it all. After months of careful tending and craftsmanship, the true reward is enjoying each glass with friends and family. We invite you to taste our wines and experience the flavor, balance, and authenticity that define our Clean and Crafted, Minimal Intervention philosophy. It’s all part of what makes LaBelle Winery a proud expression of New Hampshire Wine, World Class Quality.
