Our Estate and Mountain Wineries

Why Two Winemaking Locations?

With Ferrari-Carano's 19 estate vineyards in four appellations totaling over 1400 acres, it became apparent to Don Carano that in order to maintain Ferrari-Carano’s consistent quality and produce the world-acclaimed wines that Ferrari-Carano has become known for, two separate winemaking locations were needed – one concentrating on white wines and the other on red wines. This decision stemmed from Don’s winemaking philosophy of having a dedicated winemaking team that is passionate about attention to detail and producing the best wines possible.

Ferrari-Carano's Estate Winery
Located in Dry Creek Valley and home to Ferrari-Carano's Hospitality Visitor’s Center, Villa Fiore, the Estate Winery was built in 1981 and now focuses mainly on producing Ferrari-Carano's stellar white wines. At Ferrari-Carano, we harvest our grapes at night, when temperatures are the coolest, giving us crisp and intense fruit flavors. From the moment the grapes enter the winery, the winemaking teams’ objective is to interpret the individual characteristics of each vineyard block, based on the growing techniques, soil, clonal differences and flavor – a term for which in France is "Vigneron," or “vinemaker,” in English. At our Estate Winery, we have a multitude of tools to support this goal:

A whole cluster fruit press is utilized to gently provide intense flavorful berry extraction.
Stainless steel juice-settling tanks allow grape solids to settle naturally without the roughness of centrifuge, which can remove flavorful grape solids.
Five barrel cellars, including a magnificent French underground cellar, for the fermentation and aging of our Chardonnays are the ideal environment for our wines to develop into lush, rich wines with complex nuances.
Research and development is ongoing at Ferrari-Carano. A separate experimental cellar and two labs enable our winemaking team to apply new procedures for creating superior wines.

All Ferrari-Carano wines are vinified and kept in separate lots until blending. Our Fume Blanc is crafted from seven of our estate vineyards in Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River Valleys. Our Alexander Valley Chardonnay is created from eleven different estate vineyards and is a blend of fourteen different clones and selections. Our Reserve Chardonnay is primarily from our Napa Carneros ranch, and is complemented with fractions of our best lots from our Alexander Valley vineyards. The Russian River Valley Chardonnay series are all single vineyard designates from premier locations in this appellation.

Ferrari-Carano’s Mountain Winery Estate
Located on RockRise Mountain on the east side of Alexander Valley, high above Geyserville at an elevation of
1,200 feet, sits the Mountain Winery Estate where Ferrari-Carano’s red wines are made. The grapes are harvested at night in the age-old tradition; by hand. Each mountain vineyard block is tediously sampled on a daily basis to determine the optimum picking time. The winemaker's goal is to translate this mountain fruit of small berries with concentrated flavors into lush, complex, rich, and flavorful wines. This state-of-the-art gravity-flow winery is unique because the delivery system for the grape clusters was specifically designed for Ferrari-Carano to handle the fruit as gently as possible:

A 36-foot grape sorting conveyor belt makes it easier for our crew to sort through fruit for the removal of any unwanted green material that could impart a bitter flavor in the wine.
A vertical elevator belt moves whole grape berries up into an articulating arm which moves 180 degrees over a semicircle of stainless steel and oak fermenting tanks, thereby dropping the whole berries directly into each tank.
Adjacent to the winery is a 46,000 square foot underground cave for fermentation and barrel aging that provides the perfect environment for the wines to develop to their full potential.

As with our white wines, our red wines are produced from a variety of different clones and selections from Ferrari-Carano's two mountain vineyards, RockRise and LookOut. These mountain grapes come from low-yielding, non-irrigated vines which add depth and character to the wines.