The focus of Sova is on a single wine each year – always a Cabernet Sauvignon that is blended with select other Bordeaux varietals. Total production is small – usually around 200 cases but growing slightly each year.

The vineyard sources change but with grapes harvested from small family owned sites. Sean always takes a gentle approach to winemaking – the fruit arrives, is de-stemmed and then left for up to 24 hours before inoculating with the yeast. The wines are fermented in t-bins. Sean enjoys the intimacy he has with the wines during fermentation – hand punching down the cap, always closely in touch with what is going during this critical time.

Post fermentation the grapes are pressed off with the resulting free run wine kept separate from the pressed wine before being blended back together. He presses the wine gently – using a basket press and not overly extracting. He works with a variety of coopers and ages the wine in premium French oak barrels (a combination of some new and used).