Since our inception in 2003 the winemaking team at Hidden Bench has embraced an “old world” non- interventionist approach to make both our terroir driven small lot estate and single vineyard wines.
VINICULTURE
All grapes are handpicked from our estate vineyards into 10kg baskets and then carefully sorted at the winery by our “triage team” so as to ensure that only the cleanest and best fruit is used to make our wines. All white wine grapes receive a single “triage” and then are whole punch pressed to assure the gentlest extraction of juice. All red grapes, particularly our Pinot Noir, are bunch sorted and destemmed and then receive a secondary individual berry “triage” prior to being placed in our oak, stainless steel, and concrete fermenters.
Our winemaking team benefits from all the latest technology, such as geothermal cooling and heating with precise temperature control installed in all tanks to permit extended natural settling and natural yeast ferments of whites and appropriate pre-natural ferment, cold maceration of our reds.
As estate winegrowers our goal is to have our wines reflect the unique individual terroir of the Beamsville Bench sub-appellation parcels that we call home. To remain true to our calling, we eschew non-organic additives and commercially selected yeasts and strive to bottle our wines un-fined and unfiltered whenever possible. All our wines are bottled with minimal sulphur dioxide (SO2) to preserve their freshness and quality and to permit them to age gracefully. This approach has permitted the vast majority of our wines to be vegan friendly and to be certified organic by Procert as of 2015/16.
We believe that real “Natural Wine” has its origin in organically or biodynamically grown estate fruit and a non-interventionist approach in the cellar with an acute and precise attention to detail from vineyard to bottle
