Smoky Hill Vineyards & Winery Fine Kansas & American Wine Wine Accessories, Gifts and Wine Maker Dinners

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Viticulture is the fancy word for growing grapes... the only word for crafting wine is Winemaker. Without a winemaker, grapes are nothing more than fruit!

From the gentle, rolling slopes of our vineyard through the careful processes that will yield a variety of wines, our wines are handcrafted using the traditional European style with a gentle nudge from modern technology.

	Most Smoky Hill Wines are crafted utilizing the European style of blending grapes. As a matter of fact, some of the world’s more recognized wines are blends of grape varieties. (Chianti and Bordeaux, to name just two.) And many American wines are actually blends, even though their labels may carry a single grape name. Legally, if one grape variety makes up to 75% of the blend, just one variety may be listed. For instance, Merlot wine is likely to contain up to 25% Cabernet grapes.

In the creation of a classic Bordeaux wine, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes will be blended, each to contribute a unique character to the final wine: roundness from the Merlot, aroma and color from the Cabernet Franc, and body and tannin from the Cabernet Sauvignon.

To begin the complex process of winemaking, the hand-harvested grapes are brought to the Winery crush-pad in bins, then fed into the de-stemmer-crusher. Inside this machine, the grapes are knocked from their stems and separated from the leaves and stems. The skins of the grapes are broken and the crushed grapes (must) go to the presses (white wine) or to fermentation tanks (red wine).

For Smoky Hill white wines, the crushed grapes are pumped into the press. The process of pressing the juice from the must leaves the skins behinds. Juice is then transferred to large stainless steel tanks, where yeasts are added to initiate the fermentation process. The winemaking formula, or more accurately, the equation, is the same universally: sugar + yeast = C02 + ethyl alcohol (+ heat). With sufficient oxygen, proper temperature and sugar to burn, yeast will produce wine from the juice.

	From fermentation to racking (the process of moving the wine from cone container to another, leaving the solids behind in the process), the wine will be aged. Different grapes and various styles of wine call for different kinds of containers, for example, oak barrels. At Smoky Hill, we use both American and French oak. The photo at left is from our own barrel cave.

Barrels need to be topped off with the same wine as is already in the barrels, since the wine will evaporate over time. Very little head space is allowed in the barrel so oxygen can’t react with microorganisms and change the wine to vinegar.

Still a long way from becoming a fine, Smoky Hill Luce d’ Bianco or Chardonnal, the blending is where the Winemaker makes his mark. When the aging is complete, Steve will blend various “batches” or “lots” of wine.

The next step may include cold-stabilization in tanks that are temperature controlled. The temperature is dropped to below freezing. This process will allow the tartrates (harmless crystalline deposits that separate from the wine during fermentation) to be removed.

Filtration to remove remaining natural debris or solids may happen at this stage, the final stage prior to bottling. Smoky Hill white wines are: Premium Chablis, Chardonnal, Premium Auslese, Luce d’Bianco, Sweet Lady and Czech White.

The creation of Smoky Hill red wines follows a different process. Crushed grapes with the skins still on them are moved from the destemmer-crusher right into the fermentation tanks.

When the fermentation process is complete, the natural solid debris is removed (racked off) and transferred to the container where it will age. Smoky Hill Winery uses mostly American Oak. A second, or malolactic fermentation softens the red wines that go through this process. Fining (the process of adding egg white or another media) is used to capture fine particles in the wine, which are then removed.

	Finally, when barrel maturation is complete, the wines are bottled. Smoky Hill reds are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Heartland Red, Premium Claret, Spaghetti Red, Simply Red, River Valley Red and Czech Red. Utilizing formulas and techniques passed on from winemaker and founder Steve Jennings, Steve's son Norm, Smoky Hill winemaker Norm Jennings patiently and skillfully creates these wines to be sampled and appreciated by every level of wine lover... from novice to connoisseur.

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