Tasting Notes

Release Date: Winter/Spring 2006

Let's face it, the no-holds-barred, low cut dress mode of Cabernet, so popular with "competition' wines, becomes tiresome at the dinner table. Sommeliers across the country tell me that the style of our Cabernet is different for California. They say that the weight and texture of our wine suits their contemporary cuisine. Music to my ears. With lively acidity, balanced tannins and generous terroir-driven fruit character, this style of wine holds one's interest longer. A dynamic change from first glass to last is one of our goals.

2002 was an incredible year for all of our estate wines. A very cold winter with low rainfall gave way to a cool growing season, low yields and a late harvest. We knew we had something special early on in tasting the barrels. Aromas of lead pencil shavings, cassis, and blackberry are followed by textural expansiveness on the palate with flavors of black current, anise and earth.

The total impression is large, generous, age-worthy and above all tasty.

Production

2,042

Tech Notes

Yield: 2.1 tons per acre Harvest: September 24th- October 10th Numbers @ Harvest: 23.5 Brix, 3.49 pH, 6.5 grams acidity Barrel Regimen: 50% Bordeaux French thin stave new; 50% 1-2 year old French and American Appalachian Bottling: October 2002

Reviews

93 points Editors Choice Wine Enthusiast Magazine  - September 2006

A couple of things about this wine are immediately striking; First I the fruit, which is enormously juicy to the point of jamminess, accented by smoky oak.  Second is the smooth supple texture, mainly due to the wonderful tannins. It’s a complex, wholesomely dry wine, delicious now but with the structure to last at least a decade.

91 (+) points Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar - July/August 2005

Dark Ruby-red. Black fruits, horehound candy and roots on the nose. Dense but vibrant, with very rich, youthfully aggressive, varietally accurate flavors of blackcurrant, bitter chocolate, medicinal herbs and pepper. The wine’s inner-mouth energy suggests it will evolve slowly and well in bottle.  Finishes long and gripping, with late notes of pepper and chocolate.