Winemaking
Mill Creek's winery sits on a knoll overlooking the vineyards. The main building was on the property when the Kreck family purchased the land in 1968 and was converted to a state of the art winery in 1976. The two main sections of the winery include temperature controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks and small French and American oak barrels.
Winemaker Jeremy Kreck’s basic philosophy is to let the fruit shine in Mill Creek’s wines. “My goal is to have the winemaking process and components compliment and enhance the fruit.”
The whites are picked at optimum maturity, then crushed and pressed gently. The juice is settled, then racked and inoculated with yeast. The whites are fermented in a combination of stainless steel tanks and small oak barrels. The gewürztraminer and sauvignon blanc are bottled early the next year, while the chardonnay is allowed to age for a brief period.
The reds are crushed, then fermented in small stainless steel tanks while either being pumped over or punched down, two to three times daily. After fermentation, the must is pressed and the wine returned to stainless steel for a brief time to settle before being racked to 60 gallon barrels. Jeremy adds, “Barrels are the seasoning, if you will, of the wine world. Done properly, flavors are lifted and additional layers of complexity added, without being overwhelming in the finished product.” Reds age from 12-24 months depending on the wine.
“The fruit is influenced by the cool nights and mornings of the Russian River Valley, yet allowed to fully mature with the warmer climate of the Dry Creek Valley.”
