WINEMAKER’S NOTES:
A warm vintage gave us ripe Cabernet Sauvignon with aromas of ripe black fruit. The Merlot and Syrah in the blend bring great texture and weight. Notes of warm baking spices envelope the fruit adding depth and complexity. The voluminous fruit carries through in the mouth. Powdery tannins give structure to the wine while maintaining an elegant, balanced mouth feel. This wine shows great expression of the terroir of the Horse Heaven Hills.
VINEYARD SOURCING:
The fruit for this wine is grown at our acclaimed Dead Canyon vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills. The fruit is exposed to dappled sunlight, allowing for uniform ripening and flavor development. Well balanced crop levels have allowed us to create wines with great depth and concentration.
GROWING SEASON:
2015 was the hottest year on record and began with a moderate winter that lead into a warm spring and very hot summer. The warm spring resulted in an early bloom, which caused veraison to occur 2-3 weeks earlier than normal, and began harvest 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The heatwave finally tapered off at the end of August, giving us warm days and cool nights which created the perfect conditions for great fruit flavor development. The cool nights maintained the bright natural acidity in the grapes, resulting in balanced wines with concentrated fruit.
WINEMAKING:
These grapes were double sorted, first in the vineyard with the selective harvest on our Pellenc harvesters, then again at the winery on our sorting table. The fruit was not crushed in order to preserve as much whole-berry as possible. At the winery, individual lots were fermented in stainless steel tanks. Twice daily pumpovers allowed gentle extraction of color and tannins.
Blend:
76% Cabernet Sauvignon
17% Merlot
7% Syrah
Alcohol: 13.9%
T.A.: 0.46 g/100 ml
pH: 3.90