Winemaker Notes

A rich, intense bouquet of creme de cassis, blackberries, and subtle sweet oak mingled with dark mocha and anise. An intense floral quality of old-fashioned heirloom roses delight. Rich, intense flavors, explosively attack the palate. The wine parks itself on the mid palate. A persistence of fruit in the mouth that must be tasted again, again and again to be believed. A rich and expansive texture, with ripe velvety tannins, melt into a prolonged, flavorful finish. An incredibly focused, tight, well delineated finish into the back of the throat - nearly endless.

Climate and Harvest

This year was cool with a heat spike on Labor Day weekend reaching over 100 degrees with an unusually low humidity. Some dehydration occurred in the vineyard which required hand removal of the shriveled berries prior to harvest. We use recycled kitchen forks with the tips bent over to carefully clean each cluster. 

The remaining weeks prior to harvest were atypical with low humidity and very dry conditions. Crop yields were between 25-30% below average lending itself to creating rich highly-concentrated opulent wines.

We believe in 100% native fermentation: this means producing a wine more reflective of the terroir or in other words the sunlight, topography, geology, and hydrology specific to the microclimates within our ranch.

Fermentation started slowly with 6 days of cold maceration before kicking off. A cold soak is essential in extracting the tannins, the lifeline of red wines, giving our wine the longevity it deserves. Fermentation lasted 8 days until the wine went dry. Next, extended maceration lasted for 47 days ending on December 1, 2002. From start to finish 61 days on the skins. 

The first cuvée was entirely free run out of the tanks - with no pressed wine. The second cut was drained for 8 hours after the first, and the 3rd was taken 12 hours later. All lots were kept separate. The pumice was removed from the tank without any mechanical pressing and dumped into our compost piles.