OUR WINES
2009 NORTH COAST Cabernet Sauvignon
Vineyard Notes:
Harvested over 2 days beginning mid-October and culminating with a late October close to the vintage. Once again, both vineyards were 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 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 yin and yang to one another: abundant flavor in one and massive but defined structure in the other. The color in the 2009 Cabernet is dark ruby red with tinges of purple. A big nose-full of brambly blackberry, dark cherry and cassis are the first to garner your attention followed by hints of rose petals, red meats, and touch of vanilla spice (love that chick!). Voluminous mouthful of velvety blackberry and dark, red cherry flavors attack but give way to baker’s chocolate. Finishing hints of plum and cigar-box are framed by supple tannins that give this wine cellar time if that is your thing.
Alcohol: 14.4% | TA: .62 | pH: 3.67
Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 4400 cases produced.
2008 NORTH COAST 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 yin 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 NORTH COAST Cabernet Sauvignon
Vineyard Notes:
This fruit come from 2 different ranches and act as a kind of yin and yang. 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. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Tasting Notes:
Bold, heady aromas of right-out-the-bramble blackberry, wild strawberry. 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'. Harmonious acid and fine tannin. The wine reads as something much fancier than its presentation.
Alcohol: 14.1%
3500 cases produced.
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.
