OUR WINES

2008 Cabernet Sauvignon

Vineyard Notes:

Harvested over 3 days in early October from two different ranches both farmed by our man Lanny Capp. The first and larger, the Inn Ranch, sits on a gently sloped, well drained alluvial bed of gravel and clay that any Napa winemaker would drool over. It gives us our wine fruit and complexity. The second, the Ellis Ranch, is much steeper and dramatic, and produces an incredibly concentrated, intense wine with deep structure.

Tasting Notes:

As alluded to above, our two sites act as a kind of yen and yang to one another: abundant flavor in one and massive but defined structure in the other. In the nose, the 2008 Cabernet jumps out with bold, heady aromas of right-out-the-bramble blackberry, wild strawberry. A wild yeast fermentation keeps the aromas pretty wild themselves, and the slightest kiss of new oak (6 barrels out of 140) provides a little vanilla as well. The aromas carry over into the mouth, where they are complemented by currants, blackberry, cigar-box tobacco, and a touch of minerality we think of as 'pencil lead'. All this is framed by a structure of harmonious acid and fine, seamless-but-pronounced tannin that we are very proud of—the wine reads as something much fancier than its presentation.

Alcohol: 14.1%   |   TA: .58   |   pH: 3.83
Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 3500 cases produced.

 

 

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast

Here’s what we taste:

Big, ripe, dark cherries with a touch of tobacco. Add in some vanilla, wild strawberries and currants in the nose. Give it a bold structure, smooth but pronounced texture and mouthfeel, some warmth and a long finish.

Alcohol: 14.1%   |   TA: .89   |   pH: 3.82

OK. That’s the fancy stuff. File it away. And then bust this out:

You can’t be all things to everybody, right? Or can you… Our red isn’t afraid. It doesn’t shrink back in the face of boldness. It knows all about it. You’ll know that you’re drinking a big red with the acidity to marry with grilled steak or that piece of Baker’s chocolate to close out the day. They’ll match up, dance around, leave together. ‘Cuz this is a red that can be all things—a great drinking red just sitting on the porch watching cars drive by or a great dinner companion when you don’t want the conversation to be dominated.