About Us

3 Oaks Vineyard is located just outside of Clovis, California, and easily accessible from Hwy. 168.

We are a smaller family owned and run farm that offers sustainably grown premium wine grapes for the home winemaker, as well as the equipment and knowledge to help you in making your own wine.

If you just want to enjoy the serenity of the vineyard, we offer the perfect venue for smaller, more intimate weddings and receptions, reunions, parties or get togethers for up to 150 people.

We invite you to give us a call. Steve loves nothing more than to share his passion for growing grapes and wine making. Be warned....you may not want to leave. It truly is “An Oasis In The City”.

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Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Cabernet Sauvignon was pressed on Thursday, 8 Dec 11, after 3 weeks of fermentation; and racked on 10 Dec (separating the clear liquid on top from the solids at the bottom). 
The wine developed great color and flavor, so all the work pruning the vines this summer paid off. What I have found is that fermenting the grapes for 3 weeks is great to extract the maximum amount of color and flavor, but the grapes have to be of premium quality, which is developed in the vineyard before the grapes are even picked. 


 Interestingly, if the vine branches get over 4 ft long, they start producing more sugar than sending energy to the grapes and thus a herbaceous flavor is apparent in the resultant wine, which in small amounts is ok, but large amounts detract from the grape and oak flavors. 


Consequently, trimming the vines during the summer to limit the length of the vines actually improves the flavor and color of the grapes and wine. Conversely, too much trimming increases the opportunity for the sun to raisin the grapes, which produces a cooked grape or raisin flavor in the wine. 


As for this years Cabernet Sauvignon, I am eager for the first year of aging to end so we can taste the young wine at its first stage of development, which will be late fall 2012.  

Cheers, Steve. 

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