There is a long interview with Martin Ray in Robert Benson's Great
Winemakers of California, Capra Press, 1977, pp.19 - 31. A few answers
from Martin Ray himself follow.

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"We do absolutely nothing to the red wines. We don't even rack them. Now
here's something. I know of no one else who in any way agrees with me
about this. But we say if you bring your red grapes in clean - that's
the reason for careful picking, cutting off any bad berries, and not
allowing any vinegar flies in - if you are careful, you don't have to do
anything, and the wine gets its great flavor off the lees, which is
solid matter, albuminous material, some tannin, some tartaric, which
settes out. We never bottle the red wines before they've been three
years in cask."

Concerning white wines: "Thats all we do to them, we filter them."

" I add yeast immediately as the wines are drawn off the press if it's
the white, or to the fermenters for the red. And that culture, you might
like to know, is the true Montrachet."

" We pick with little scissors, not grape hooks, because to cut with a
knife a tough stem like the Cabernet, you squeeze the bunch a little.
You break a few berries maybe, the juice starts running, it gets messy
and it attracts flies and bees and whatever they carry. We always
instruct our pickers to let the bunch lay in the open palm and cut the
stem with scissors. Then don't throw the bunch into the box, but lean
over and place it carefully."

"I get my casks from Louis Latour in Beaune. His own cooper makes them
for me."

"Now I said there were two reasons for crushing at 5 a. m.; the second
reason is to get them before the flies come out. Before sunup there are
no vinegar flies, no yellowjackets, no bees, wasps."

"Well I don't feel that way, I wish to God that I never had to sell any
of my wines, that we could keep all the reds here as long as I live,
because I know that they'll still be alive."




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