The no skin contact way is how Amity Vineyards makes its white pinot noir, according to Harms. But, it's not the only thing that contributes to the wine's color and taste. The Amity team also chooses grapes of a specific ripeness and presses them in a specific way. "We look to harvest the pinot noir grape at a riper level than if we were making sparkling wine but not as ripe as if we were making red wine... The fruit is pressed whole cluster using a very gentle sparkling wine setting to avoid extracting color and any bitterness from the fruit," Harms explains. From there, the process continues for a while. "Once the juice settles overnight, we put the juice in a stainless-steel tank and add yeast," the Amity Vineyard partner tells us. "We are looking for a long, cool fermentation in the hope to capture all the beautiful aromas and flavors that pinot noir can yield. Then we bottle the wine in the late winter."