At Vérité, they're dedicated to crafting Bordeaux-inspired blends that stand among the world's finest — and that express Sonoma County terroir with beautiful transparency. To this end, Vigneron Pierre Seillan works closely with their vineyard managers throughout the year, following the fruit from bud break to crush in order to intimately understand its personality and potential to contribute to thier three wines. No expense is spared in ensuring they allow their terroir to transmit its full potential: Lots are first vinified by micro-cru — or "vineyards within vineyards" — then transferred to barrels to settle and begin maturation. As the wine evolves, Pierre tastes each lot individually over a period of months and ultimately decides where it's destined to go — into La Muse, La Joie or Le Désir. Once Pierre creates the final blend for each wine, he returns the finished wines to barrels to further integrate and develop in the winery. In keeping with the quality and aging potential of thier wines, each spends between 15-18 months in new French oak barrels — which soften and lend depth to the wine without contributing excessively strong flavors. Pierre likes to say that oak in wine "should be like a ghost — you sense its presence, but you don't actually perceive it." In a word: it allows the terroir to speak with outstanding clarity. It also lends the wines impeccable balance and texture upon release, along with the potential to gain still more complexity in the cellar for decades to come.