Vineyard

2020 was quite a year…light Winter rains followed by a cool Spring brought uneven bloom and yielded a small harvest. While it was a nerve-racking fire season, we were lucky in 2020. Neither the Lightning Complex Fires nor the Glass Fire impacted our vineyard or fruit. Due to the light crop, harvest was about two weeks earlier than normal.

Cellar

To produce this Cabernet, we sorted the fruit and fermented the juice with its skins to extract both color and flavor. CO₂ gas (a by-product of fermentation) bubbled up through the skins causing them to float to the top and form the “cap”.  To ensure thorough flavor and color extraction, we performed “pumpovers” by pumping juice from the bottom of the tank and sprinkling it over the cap throughout fermentation which lasted 12 days. 

Following the Bordeaux tradition of extended maceration, the wine remained with its skins for another two weeks to soften the young tannins. We then drained the wine, pressed the skins and moved the Cabernet into our caves where it was aged in oak barrels. (30% of the barrels are new.) During its first Winter, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation to lower its acidity and add richness. After many tastings in the Spring of 2022, we blended 5.5% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot with the Cabernet to increase the wine’s depth and length. We continued to barrel-age the wine until it was bottled in August 2022.

Drinkability

Fruit forward, lively and young, the 2020 Cabernet opens with complex fruit aromas of blackberries, cassis and raspberries; those aromas are enriched by fresh mint, India ink and sweet vanilla bean notes giving the wine richness and depth. On the palate, it has a bright entry and soft mid-palate with flavors of Picholine olives, herbes de Provence and steak tartare. Long and lingering on the palate, it has a toasted bread and dark chocolate finish. At five years of age, the 2020 seems young in comparison to its predecessors, but (like all of our Cabernets) it has the structure and richness to age well for at least fifteen more years.

At Harvest:

23.2° Brix
0.63 g/100 mls TA
3.42 pH

At Bottling:

13.9% alcohol
0.63 g/100 mls TA
3.60 pH