This is the first Harvest Season I’ve been in Monterey since I’ve been serious about wine and I decided to take the opportunity to learn more.
I reached out to Miguel Lepe, a winemaker I admire and the owner of Lepe Cellars, to see if I could go behind the scenes at his winery. Miguel agreed and I set out for River Road in the Santa Lucia Highlands to observe him in action.
Miguel established Lepe Cellars in 2015 and actually made his first commercial vintage with the help of a kickstarter campaign. Now Lepe Cellars has a tasting room in Carmel-by-the-Sea and the lineup includes a wonderfully varied list with Petit Verdot, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and more.
I pulled up to the winery and Miguel greeted me in the barrel room. I immediately recognized his iconic wine barrels, monogrammed with “LEPE” in bright blue. You’ve probably seen them on his instagram or in photos on the walls in his tasting room.
A little more about Miguel, he’s from Salinas originally and initially became interested in winemaking after taking a Vineyard Production class at Hartnell College. He went on to graduate from Cal Poly SLO with a degree in enology and viticulture. Fun fact I learned from him, there is actually a winery and a 14 acre vineyard on campus at Cal Poly that are managed by the students.
After graduating, Miguel worked at wineries all over California including Sylvester and Justin in Paso Robles and with Peter Figge in Marina. He even worked a harvest in Chile and traveled around South America (he visited Easter Island!) before coming back to Monterey to work at Figge Cellars.
Miguel wasn’t crushing any grapes on the day I visited, but he took me on a tour of the “Crush Pad” (where the equipment that processes freshly harvested grapes lives) and walked me through the process.
He explained that when grapes arrive they are put into the hopper which feeds them onto a sorting conveyor belt where workers can sort the grapes. The grapes are then fed into the destemmer-crusher which removes the stems and crushes the grapes to break open the skins.
Depending on the type of grape the next step is different – black grapes (for red wine) go straight on to ferment. The skins of the grapes are included for color and tannins.
White grapes on the other hand are first pressed before fermenting and typically the grape skins are discarded. Then depending on the style of wine being made they go into a tank or barrel to ferment.
After walking me through the crush pad, Miguel had work to do and explained he was going to add yeast and “punch down” some Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that were currently fermenting in an open top fermenter. I was intrigued as I have only seen wine that has already been pressed aging in barrels.
As he was adding the yeast, Miguel explained that the freshly crushed red grapes also contain the skins and that a solid mass called “the cap” forms on top of the mixture. The cap must be physically broken up by “punching it down” with a special tool to push the material back into the fermenting grapes. This process also helps to mix the yeast and circulate oxygen into the mixture. It looks like hard work to do by hand, but Miguel made it look easy.
After the educational lesson, Miguel led me through a tasting of Lepe Cellar’s current line up of a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. Miguel’s winemaking style is “minimalist” and “hands-off”; he prefers to focus on the grapes and the vineyard and showcase what the region can produce.
He’s got some exciting things in store, including a sparkling Sangiovese Rosé, a still Rosé, Malbec and maybe even a red blend in the future. I tried a barrel sample of the two week old Malbec, I look forward to revisiting that one in the future….
If you are looking to try Lepe Cellars wine you can visit the tasting room in Carmel-by-the-Sea or order their wine directly from lepecellars.com. Locals can also buy the wine at Elroy’s in Monterey, Start Market in Salinas, or Deer Park Wine & Spirits in Santa Cruz.
Thank you Miguel for hosting me for an educational afternoon at the winery!
