White Rock Winery is a working underground winery. The 6000 sq.ft. of caves were dug from the hillside of white volcanic ash that is typical of our property, the same rock that was quarried from the property in the 1860’s to build the original winery building. Caves are the ideal environment for making and storing wine. The constant humidity and temperature safeguard the beautiful fruit flavors in our wines and keep them from drying out and becoming harsh in the barrel. After bottling, our red wines are aged in the dark and vibration-free caves until they are ready to be sold. Only upon release , they are labeled, encased and shipped.

Our WHITE ROCK CLARET is a blend of several lots of Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. These are fermented separately and blended together over the first year as the character of the vintage develops. After two years of aging in 60 gallon French oak barrels, these varieties combine to produce a Bordeaux-style Claret with rich and varied flavors, as well as a mineral character due to our special soils.

Our CHARDONNAY grapes, hand-picked into small boxes, are hand-sorted to retain only the best berries; they are then transferred directly into the press. In order to preserve the delicate fruit flavors and to extract only the most desirable juice, we do not use the crusher-stemmer which can save time but extracts the harsher tannins of crushed stems and seeds. The juice is then fermented and aged on the fermentation’s sediments (called "lees") in French oak barrels. Regular stirring of these lees allows us to minimize the use of sulfites and imparts a creaminess that balances our Chardonnay’s natural acidity and citrus fruit. We choose to do only partial malo-lactic fermentation, which can mask the fruity and floral aromas of Chardonnay.