100-Year Plan

100-Year Plan

Although the arrival of The Vilafonté marks the realisation of a dream, the journey is far from over. On the whiteboard in his office, Mike points out a small caption in the top right-hand corner: The 100 Year Plan.

‘We’re eight years into it, so it’s a 92-Year plan now,’ he chuckles.

Achieving the single wine – The Vilafonté – was a huge part of it, but the quest to make that wine the very best it can be goes on. For example, Vilafonté has always chosen not to inoculate their wine with generic yeast, but to allow the natural yeasts present in vineyard and winery to ferment their juice. But along with his team of experts, Mike has spent years isolating specific yeast strains from the vineyard, chosen for the flavours they impart and developing them as a natural house yeast that can be added to the must – imparting the desired flavour, whilst removing some of the more random and unpredictable elements of natural fermentation.

There are experiments into selecting specific clones of the vines they feel perform especially strongly in terms of flavour. There are projects to improve their energy use and sustainability credentials – already strong, thanks to their technological approach in such things as underground irrigation directly to the roots. They’re investing heavily in their people: ‘making sure that our team is locked in, fully motivated and that they have started to feature and are all independent,’ in Mike’s words.

It’s a huge project, especially in the hyper-focussed context of aiming to perfect one single wine. But they’re trying to achieve something extraordinary at Vilafonté – and it looks like they’re set to continue doing so for many years to come.