"All of our wines at Pheasant’s Tears are fermented and aged in qvevri, a unique Georgian vessel used to ferment and store wine. Pheasant’s Tears qvevri vary in age but, some date back to the mid 19th C. We built our cellar in the vineyard itself to minimize the damage to the grapes in transportation, allowing us to harvest and press before the hot hours of the sun. It is usually a question of hours before the harvested grapes are already pressed and in the cool qvevri. In accordance with Georgian traditional winemaking methods, the ripest of stems are added to the grape skins, juice and pits, for both our reds and our whites. Since all of our wines are aged exclusively in qvevri, no flavors are imparted from oak barrels. What some might consider a lack of oak we view as an opportunity to let the quality of the grapes and the resulting wine shine through." -Pheasant's Tears