Inviting aromas of milk chocolate dipped strawberries, and cinnamon sprinkled raspberries seduce you into taking your first sip. This reflex is rewarded with a creamy and fresh mid-palate that exhibits layers of red licorice and white pepper intertwined with a juiciness supported by a focused, linear tannin profile. Tannin length on this wine seems to never end, allowing an ethereal aromatic of dried, wild Vietnamese strawberries to linger and dance on the palate beautifully. This wine should show well now and benefit from extended aging through 2030. It pairs beautifully with roasted mushroom and white cheddar polenta.
The fruit was harvested October 4th through 25th. 2019 began with a wet and cool spring, which pushed bud break out two weeks later than in 2018. The summer growing season was relatively uneventful, with no heat spikes. Due to the moderate weather and late bud break, veraison did not end until early August in some areas of the valley. Autumn brought hot days and cool nights which helped push the grapes to full ripening, while preserving their acidity. As a result, the wines produced from this vintage are full and robust with deep color.
The grapes were hand-harvested at night—when temperatures often dip to 50˚F—to capture vibrant acidity and fruit expression in the wine. We first cold-soaked the must (crushed grapes) for gentle extraction and then fermented in stainless steel, concrete and oak barrel fermenters at 92˚F. Rigorous pump-overs, increasing during the peak of the fermentation, developed deep color, rich varietal character and fine tannins in the wine.
The wine was aged in new French oak barrels to meld the bright fruit expression with oak spice nuances. After three months of aging, we blended the vineyard components then allow them to marry during the remainder of the 18 months of barrel-aging. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered to present the attributes of the vineyard in the purest form possible, from the dirt to the glass!
