The Art of Gentle Winemaking

The Frey Family’s Legacy of Organic Excellence written (and published with permission) by the Wine Industry Network

Article sponsored by McFinn Technologies

At the edge of the coastal redwoods lies a ranch where two young doctors from upstate New York, Marguerite (known as Beba) and Paul Frey, settled on 95 acres to raise their family. Their home is nestled between the Mendocino and Coastal mountain ranges in a narrow valley that opens into Mendocino County’s Redwood Valley. The headwaters of the Russian River lie just 5 miles north, past a Buddhist monastery, and upward into the mountains. The Frey family grew to twelve children amid the valley’s natural beauty and abundant native plants and wildlife while its vineyards and gardens thrived in the fertile soil.

“My mom and dad bought the ranch in 1962, the year I was born,” says Frey Winery winemaker Paul Frey (the younger). “Then they got all of us kids out there to plant the vineyards in 1967. We started making wine in 1978 and became an official bonded winery in 1980. Our wineries were organic from the beginning ― before the term organic was defined in 2000 ― so 2024 is our 44th year making organic wine.”

The winery has grown to 150,000 cases annually, and as the family opened its arms to spouses and grandchildren, the ranch stretched to 1000 acres. The Freys have also tended to the environment. Their vineyards are surrounded by a biodiversity reserve, with transitional hedgerows of native redwoods, madrones and manzanita, as well as roses, blackberries and olive trees. The reserve includes 100 acres of redwood forest saved from logging and an almost equal acreage of adjacent woodlands, all placed in trust for future generations.

Frey Vineyards was the country’s first organic and biodynamic winery, earning Demeter Biodynamic® certification in 1996 and USDA Organic certification in 2003. Frey has gained international recognition for his winemaking without adding sulfites, which is required to attain the USDA organic seal. He started researching additive-free winemaking techniques in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the winery added zero-oxygen bottling equipment, a must-have for no sulfites-added winemaking.

“For most of history, wine was made from organic grapes. We’ve studied ancient winemaking, which goes back at least 8,000 or even 10,000 years. To make wine in the most traditional style, you have to handle it as gently as possible. Some people have made gravity-flow wineries, which sit on top of hills and are the most extreme non-intervention possible.”

— Paul Frey

While looking for a pump that transfers wine quickly but gently, he talked with John McGinn at a wine show. McGinn is one of the owners of McFinn Technologies which designed the Bowpeller pump.

“John mentioned the Tesla pump in our conversation,” recalls Frey. “Tesla was ahead of his time, and many of his patents are still relevant. He basically defined the cell phone 100 years ago. He said, ‘You'll be able to put it in your pocket and send information and pictures from one place to the other.’ [See Tesla’s quotation here.] He built the first generators at Niagara Falls to send AC power to Buffalo, NY. Tesla's low voltage AC power beat Edison in the electric wars with Edison, who wanted to use DC power everywhere.”

One of Tesla’s lesser-known inventions was the Tesla turbine pump. Frey’s studies have convinced him that this bladeless centripetal flow turbine pump design is the best for traditional winemaking, and the Bowpeller uses the same principle.

Bowpeller pump in the Frey Vineyards cellar

McGinn further explains the Bowpeller’s patented design. “A standard centrifugal pump has blades that slap the liquid and make it change direction by 90 degrees. The Bowpeller doesn’t beat it into 90-degree submission but does so gradually, which means a couple of things for winemakers who want to do pump-overs. First, there are no pinch points inside the pump to worry about, so skins and seeds will remain intact. Second, it will be very gentle on the product and won’t break up air or entrained gas bubbles.”

He adds that the designers of the Bowpeller pump considered the g-force of the acceleration rate inside the impeller and whether or not it would rupture cell membranes. The resulting design makes it gentle to a cellular level. In addition, the two chambers inside the casing protect the wine. The first chamber acts like an inducer to help pull solids into the pump. From there, the solids and liquid move into the second chamber, where they’re protected on both sides and gently accelerated until the product is pumped out.

Frey chose the Bowpeller because it fits his traditional winemaking process of gently and minimally processing the wine. He points out that consumers like the idea of minimally processed foods and beverages. Whether you’re a winemaker who adheres to a traditional organic process or are looking for a process gentler for your wine than pump-overs, reach out to McFinn Technologies for more information.

To try Frey wines, you can visit our Wine Shop.