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Wine Description
The Story
The first vintage, produced in 1986, established this wine as an instant Napa Valley classic. Select Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with a small percentage of Cabernet Franc and aged in no greater than 60% new French oak. For close to three decades, this standard-bearer has consistently shown impressive structure and velvety berry flavors.
Wine Information
With 2015 being the driest year on record in California, our estate vineyard showed its grit and tenacity, gliding through the summer with low vigor canopies and a small but balanced crop load. By mid-season we knew it was going to be an early harvest, and indeed it was, we were finished by the second week in September. The crew was ready and worked diligently to carefully hand harvest and sort the fruit. Color and tannin extracted easily, and very quickly we had some eye-opening wines in the barrel—dark, aromatic, fresh, and very limited in quantity.
Vintage 2015
This wine is a powerhouse. The low yields in the vineyard translated into great concentration, tannic structure, and fruit purity. From the glass rise aromas of black fruits, white chocolate, caramel, truffles, and roasted meat. On the palate, the wine is rock solid, packed with fruit and complexity. But, despite its mass, the wine has a narrow, laser-like focus, with ample acid and tannin, and as it unfolds in the glass, more layers emerge: wet slate, matchstick, gravel, and kirsch. It will surely broaden and be burnished with age. It is muscular but balanced and generous, attributes that bode well for its age ability.
