Winemaker Ken Foster is active and full of energy in the cellar and he is enthusiastically involved in every step of the winemaking process from vineyard to bottle. Ken utilizes small open top fermentations, neutral oak barrels, sur lie aging, and his own hands-on approach in carefully crafting the Redwood Empire wines.

Understanding that you cannot fully know the wines unless you understand the fruit, Ken walks the cool coastal vineyards around, and during harvest to sample grape clusters, taste for flavor expression, and monitor the health and vitality of the vines. Much of the hand-picked fruit is fermented separately to retain the unique qualities while some lots are co-fermented to combine their characteristics into a controlled field blend.

This approach affords Ken a wide range of options when crafting the final blends for our wines. In most vintages he has dozens of lots of different Pinot Noirs to choose from in the blending process. Ken’s keen palate, three decades of winemaking experience, and over a decade of experience working with North Coast AVA fruit have combined to produce something very unique and special at Redwood Empire Winery. Our world-class wines express the terroir of our vineyards and are a testament to the artisanal and careful approach Ken Foster takes to winemaking.