Winemaking
To maintain the sense of the grapes origins we engage in non-interventionist winemaking, meaning that we employ a minimalist approach in creating our wines. We also utilize techniques that, while they may be risky, maximize the expression of the fruit. The result are wines carefully crafted and nurtured that are distinctive and expressive – always the product of our striving to produce the best wines possible. These varietals are not mono-dimensional, clean, sterile wines, produced by multi-national corporations, but that they are wines of strong personality – living and evolving vessels of the earth.
Winemaker and owner, Phillip Staehle, created Enkidu not just to just make wines of distinction, but also to get back to “working with my hands, to use all of my senses, and live and work according to the seasons of the year.” Phil learned his craft at Carmenet Vineyards (Chalone Wine Group) from the mid-Eighties to the mid-Nineties. The philosophies at Carmenet still resonate today and were best expressed by the late Dick Graff: “To be the best you can, to not compromise on quality; and most certainly concentrate on every detail.” As with the spirit of Enkidu, Dick’s words are a guide in our winemaking, business, and life.Our winemaking style is to create wines that are first and foremost an expression of the vineyard. We strive to extract all that we can from our fruit in order to create wines of balance, complexity and, frankly, just good flavors. To maintain in our wines all that the vineyard gives, we employ a minimalist approach that utilizes techniques that, while they may be risky, maximize the expression of the fruit. The results are carefully crafted and nurtured wines, which are distinctive and expressive – the product of our striving to consistently produce the best wines possible.
Phil lives in Santa Rosa with his wife, Melissa, daughters Natasia and Gabriela, and his hairy “lab beast” named of course – Enkidu.
