Benovia Winery is a family-owned producer of Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel wines in Santa Rosa, California.
To supplement the fruit it harvests each year, Benovia purchases additional grapes from two sites farmed by the Martinelli family.
Benovia wines are produced and bottled at the winery's winemaking facilities at the Martaella Estate Vineyard in the Russian River Valley AVA.
In February 2003, husband and wife team Joe Anderson and Mary Dewane purchased the Cohn Estate Vineyard,[3] a 40-year-old Pinot noir and Zinfandel producing property (17.6 planted acres) west of Healdsburg, California which is part of a larger 55-acre (220,000 m2) ranch formerly owned by Arnold and Tekla Cohn.
A 16-acre (65,000 m2) property just outside Freestone, California was also purchased in 2008 and is currently planted to 11.76 acres (47,600 m2) of Pinot noir and named Tilton Hill Estate Vineyard.
Martaella Estate borders Benovia Winery's winemaking facilities in the Russian River Valley AVA, specifically within an area known as the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
The acquisition of a former apple orchard and horse ranch just north of the winery in 2009 allowed Benovia to plant an additional 18 acres (73,000 m2) of vines.
The Tilton Hill Estate Vineyard is the winery's coldest planting with its location just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean on a ridge top that overlooks Freestone, California[11] in the Sonoma Coast AVA.
During summer, the ridge lines nearest the coast are cooled by the ocean breezes that precede the marine layer in this part of Sonoma County.
Each cluster is inspected by hand at the sorting table prior to the automated destemming process which separates the berries from the stems.
A second sorting area following destemming allows workers to inspect the individual berries and discard unsuitable fruit.
Whole cluster pressing helps minimize the amount of malic acid and tannins that naturally exist in the skins, seeds and stems from entering the wine.
After settling, the resulting juice (called “must”) is moved to French oak barrels to ferment at a cool temperature for approximately four to six weeks.