Winemaker's Notes:
Consistency of quality and full, sweet ripeness were the hallmarks of this vintage. For aging the wine, we selected the French oak barrels from five coopers because we like the layered flavors that result from their different styles of cooperage. We aged the wines for 20 months before assembling the final blend, which also included a small amount of firm, extracted Merlot from Carneros for additional complexity. The wine's color is a dense, saturated dark ruby color. The dominant aromas are of ripe black currants, black cherries and sweet berries, with subtler suggestions of brown spices, bittersweet cocoa and earth. In the mouth, there are bursting flavors of berry fruits/plums at their lush, high-summer ripeness, toasted spice and chocolate. Fine, fully mature tannins give the wine a satisfying grip-a textural element we love. The finish is long, rich and fruit-filled yet surprisingly supple for Cabernet at this level of extraction. |