"12
Ranch Wines" is a small family owned winery located in
Bonanza, Oregon. We specialize in small, handcrafted lots of Merlot,
Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Our
grapes are hand picked from select vineyards in the Rogue Valley of
Southern Oregon. We work very closely with all our vineyards through out
the growing season, especially when it gets close to harvest. We must not
forget that a great wine begins in the vineyard. Sugar, acid levels and
when to harvest are just a few of the decisions our vineyards allow us to
make. Discretion over the growing process, not “adjustments” during
winemaking, let the grapes natural varietal flavor come through. Our wines
reflect the true qualities of each vintage.
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This
wonderful fruit is brought to our facility in Bonanza, hand sorted
into the crusher /destemmer and placed into
stainless steel fermentation tanks. They are fermented, with the
grapes, or cap being punched down by hand 3 times a day to keep
skins wet and to extract that great deep dark color. |
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Next,
we press the wine off the skins into oak barrels. The wine is aged
in Hungarian oak barrels which adds to the complexity of the wine,
but still allows the great flavor of the fruit to come through. Our
wines are unfiltered and we use only gravity flow methods to gently
handle our wines. With our small lot production we are able to pay
close attention to each wine at every step of the way.
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Wine
making at "12 Ranch Wines" is a family affair. Ken and
Connie Masten are the wine makers, sales team, and sanitation or
clean up crew and best of all, in charge of tasting for quality
control. Our daughter, McKenzie is the best helper of all. She loves
"getting into her work" and can be found hauling
stems away from the |
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crusher/ destemmer or digging
the skins out of the press, which is her favorite job. Even our
Australian Shepherd, Kairo, helps out.
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He
loves riding in the trailer to unload the grape stems and
greeting visitors. We have no employees, but have been blessed
with great friends that help us during crush, and
are always available for tasting. We couldn't have made it
without their help and support. |
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We
were born and raised in the Bonanza area, graduated from local
high schools and
McKenzie
attends the same school as Connie did. Our families have been in this
community for five generations. In addition to the winery, we
have a ranch and raise hay, grain, and cattle. The area is abundant
with wildlife and ranch life. The deer and cranes feed in the
pastures along side the cows and calves. In the spring and fall the
Canadian and Snow geese are migrating
through and
stop to feed
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in our fields on the ranch.
Because of our love for
good wine and interest in winemaking we are fulfilling our dream of
remaining in our hometown, raising our family and producing great
wines.
Our
plans are to stay small so we can focus on each of our wines, and
hopefully get to know you as you're enjoying the fruits of our
labors. We truly hope you enjoy our wines as much as we enjoy making
them and bringing them to you. We would love to have you stop by for
a visit and do some tasting. We're located in Bonanza Oregon 20
miles east of Klamath Falls.
UpDate
This
was and is the original write up for our Winery when we opened back
in 2004. As in all parts of life time goes on! That cute little girl
playing in the grapes is now all grown up and living in
Portland Oregon. She is following her dreams and career path, but
thankfully is still very involved with the Winery, our events and
does all our graphic design work She will actually be home for the
Memorial Day Open House. We also have another Australian Shepherd,
Bentley, here with us and boy does he love people, so you
might be
greeted by him!
Click
here for directions to the Winery |
12
Ranch Wines
4550
Burgdorf Rd
Bonanza
Oregon
97623
(541)
545-1204
wine@12ranchwines.com
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