About This Wine

On the nose: Notes of black pepper, cayenne peppers, cigar boxes, camp fires, violets, clay, granite rocks balanced by blackberries, blueberries, black currants, grenadine, red licorice

On the palate:  Soft, fresh fruit entrance evolving on integrated, powerful velvety tannins balanced with a silky mouth feel with touches of dark cherry, strawberry, violet, rose petal lingering on wild blackberry, cassis, fresh plum

Wine Profile

Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot

Fermentation:  94% barrel fermented, 6% stainless steel tank fermented

Aging:  22 months in French oak, 75% new, 25% 1-year-old barrels

Vintage Notes

Early bud-break and a mild, nearly perfect summer resulted in an early start to 2007 harvest. A heat spike in September pushed sugars high and hurried wineries to harvest their grapes. The weather then turned cool and harvest slowed down to give us great complexity. Rain hit the north coast in late September and early October which caused many winemakers to get the remaining fruit picked as soon as possible, but we held back. We decided to let the fruit hang. It was a large risk, but it paid off because the rain was followed by 3 weeks of great weather which yielded some amazing flavors and balance because of the small berry size and ripe fruit.

The small berry size allowed for highly concentrated and powerful wines where you could really push extraction.