Winemaker Notes
The small berries brought to the crush pad yielded an old-world style wine with notes of cassis and cedar, firm tannins, and a chocolaty palate. Thirty years later, this wine visually displays evidence of age with an opaque brick-red core, fading in saturation to a caramel rim. The nose delivers a pleasant tertiary-character concentration of prune and raisons with faint notes of burnt caramel and dark chocolate in the back drop, the latter being the only primary grape character remaining. While the wine doesn’t attack the front palate as it may have in its youth, the acidity certainly still delivers a bright liveliness to the overall mouth feel and has a commanding presence throughout the experience. The mid-palate elegantly carries the weight of the subtle and silky tannin structure, all of which continues through with a faint nuttiness on the finish.
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.
Nearly a northern extension of Napa Valley, Alexander Valley starts just north of the small, Knights Valley, and is just a few minutes drive from the Napa town of Calistoga. It is Sonoma County’s hottest AVA. But the Russian River, which runs through the valley, creates cooler pockets and its soft, alluvial soil is ideal for grape growing, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, some believe that Alexander Valley Cabernets truly rival the best from Napa Valley and many of the heavy-hitter producers have largely invested here.
In addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up over 50% of plantings, Merlot and old vine Zinfandel thrive here. Ample, fleshy Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate white wine production. Some old-vine plantings of Grenache have also been discovered and more recent experiments with Sangiovese and Barbera show great promise.