Winemaking

Suzanne Hagins, owner and winemaker, founded Lutea in 2004. She was born in Savannah, Georgia and grew up in coastal South Carolina. Her interest in wine began while working in restaurants, developed further in wine sales and became concrete at her first harvest in 1998 at Comte Armand in Pommard. Suzanne moved to California in 2000, working for DeLoach Vineyards, David Bruce Winery and Goldeneye before founding Lutea to focus on organic and biodynamic viticulture. All of her experience has been centered on crafting world class pinot noir, without exception.

At Lutea, we always harvest at first morning light so the grapes arrive cool to the winery. We harvest the fruit using secateurs (scissors), instead of blades, because the fruit is handled more gently with berries left intact rather than pulled off the vine. We also make every effort to harvest on a fruit day according to the biodynamic calendar. Once the grapes arrive at the winery, they are sorted to remove any imperfect grapes. The clusters are destemmed into small open top fermentors and allowed to cold soak for about 5 days before slowly beginning their fermentation. During fermentation, they are punched down by hand three times a day before being pressed at dryness. Only French oak barrels are used, and the wines are aged between 10-16 months before bottling. Our wines are minimally handled and only racked one or two times prior to bottling, and never fined or filtered. We recommend decanting Lutea Pinot Noir.