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Erna Schein is a boutique winery in the
truest sense. Owned by Les Behrens and Lisa Drinkward, who’ve made
wine under the Behrens & Hitchcock label since
1993, Erna Schein produces small lots of six or seven wines a year
at its winery perched high on top of Spring Mountain in Napa
Valley. Each wine is a low tech labor of love: crushed into one-ton
T-bins, punched down by hand, gently transferred to barrel, and
bottled unfined and unfiltered. One only has to look at Les and
Lisa’s hands during harvest to know their wines are truly
“hand-crafted.” The couple also gravitates toward small,
interesting and low-yielding vineyard sites, primarily in Napa
Valley and Mendocino County, working with growers who they know,
like and trust, and who are as obsessive about quality as they are.
For Les and Lisa, it’s all about letting the vineyards steal the
show, and allowing the wines to speak for themselves.
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