Winemaker Notes
The nose on this wine opens with a luscious burst of juicy blackberry. Swirl the glass once or twice, and you will start to uncover darker fruit notes of black currant, bramble berry, accented with subtle notes of oak and toasted vanilla. Take a sip, and the first thing you will notice is a firm acidity that opens quickly into dark black fruit with just a touch of anise and a bare hint of leather. As your first impression fades, you will find deeply structured tannins that fill the palate, underscoring a finish redolent with chocolate, blueberry preserves, and aged cedar. This wine evolves marvelously over the course of a glass, growing bigger and bolder as it takes in the air. The tannins unfold and show the excellent maturity of the grapes as they were
brought in from the vineyard, and the fruit characters gain in intensity, building to an intricate finish that lasts for many minutes.
Blend: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot
He and his wife, Alis, founded Arrowood Winery with the 1985 vintage. Each year, they made extraordinary small-lot varietals and vineyard designates. Richard was the winemaster at Arrowood Winery until June 2010, when he resigned his position to devote himself full-time to making wines for his estate winery, Amapola Creek Vineyards and Winery.
Covering the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains, facing the city of Sonoma, Moon Mountain District is one of Sonoma’s newest sub-appellations. Here the well-drained, red volcanic and ash soils produce hauntingly intense red wines, mainly from Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.