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Wine Description
The Story
The incredibly rocky, rhyolitic soils of this Howell Mountain site provide fruit with structure and depth, yet the cool climate produces a wine of restraint and vibrant acidity. An underlying minerality gives the wine a particularly distinctive character and provides another layer of complexity. The appellation has become a favorite of collectors who value the ageworthy capacity of wines from this elevation.
Wine Information
Purple edges lead to a dark red interior. Bright fresh cherry, vanilla nose. Vibrant palate ofred and black fruits with tobacco, and dried desert flower. The minerality and finely grained tannin profile is reminiscent of warm dusty rock, earth and stone.
Vintage 2008
2008 proved to be a tremendously challenging vintage, yet it ultimately produced some of the best wines of this decade. Vintage characteristics were defined primarily by the strongest La Nina spring in two decades. The dry La Nina winter and an unusually warm March led to the earliest bud break on record for many of our vineyard blocks. This seemed like a good thing until temperatures plummeted in late April and gave us the worst frost season ...