Winemaker Notes

A dark brilliant ruby. Aromatics open with pure ripe red and black fruit, revealing rose petals, cassis and black cherry combined with notes of marzipan and sandalwood. A satin, velvet texture shows the wine's smooth, round tannins, its bright acidity supporting a juicy and elegant texture. This precocious and remarkable wine offers a long finish, with traces of clove and dark chocolate.

Climate and Harvest

The 2008 growing season began with a mild, dry winter. Bud break arrived early, setting a perfect crop with small clusters of highly concentrated berries. Summer had ideal weather with warm, consistent temperatures through veraison. The end of summer brought several heat spikes followed by moderate temperatures that prevailed through harvest. Fruit had a long period of time for phenolics as well as sugars to reach optimum levels. The result was a slow, steady harvest of exceptional quality, with wines showing great intensity and structure.

Harvest began early October hand-harvested and hand-selected over a 10-day stretch. Initial cold soaks lasted 8-10 days then heating tanks for a slow natural fermentation. Duration of fermentations went II days on average. Punch down 3 times a day depending on the taste during the fermentations. Each lot (clones & varietal) of individually fermented and barreled down. Our Tesserae is introduced at the first racking - barrel by barrel. 20 months of elevage, with 2 rackings in the lite of the barrel.