Bacio Divino Proprietary Red 1997

For 25 years and longer, I've had a wine glass molded to my right hand. Today, my head has a permanent tilt from holding my very prominent nose over the alluring aromas and beckoning colors of many of the world's great wines. If I haven't tried every one, I've certainly made it a passion to attempt to taste of them all. Over this third of a lifetime, I've come to know and respect many great wine makers around our little world, and now clearly understand the relationship between an individual's character and his wine. You've read or heard about many of these people - men and women who are born to search for perfection, who scowl at the notion of compromise. These same people channel their character into their wine - their individuality, their uniqueness, their propensity to create rather than to plagiarize. Eminent character seems kindred to noteworthy wines...

Being so motivated, I longed to create a distinctive, noble wine. In the California tradition of working with the new to improve the traditional, I looked to achieve a way of broadening the distinctly majestic flavors and aromas of the king of Napa Valley's varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the years I've had the opportunity to experiment with various lots of Cabernet, and I eventually settled on the hillside fruit from Ahollinger vineyards in the Mount Veeder area. This vineyard produces a bold and expressive, yet elegant wine. In 1992, we discovered the Sangiovese fruit of Cal Showket in the Oakville appellation, and were literally overwhelmed by the intensity of what resulted in our first crush in 1993. To embellish the color and acid levels of the Sangiovese, we crushed and macerated this fruit with one and a half tons of the best Petite Syrah fruit I had ever sampled.

As time aged each of these wines, and molded their individual character, I was able to determine a blend that married the elegant, yet rich and softly oaked Cabernet with the Sangiovese's long and linear tannins, at the same time elevating the cherry, berry Sangiovese fruit to a pronounced level. The resulting wine showed that a whole could be greater than it's individual parts. And so...'Bacio Divino', a divine kiss, was born.