The year 2011 marks Seavey Vineyard’s 14th vintage of estate-produced Caravina Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes for this wine were sourced from a unique tapestry of steep hillside blocks all from our estate vineyard. The selected blocks were notable for their intense and youthful fruit with supple tannins. The vintage was marked by extended hang time and a late harvest which continued into early November. Seavey carefully handpicked its hillside blocks in rolling lots according to optimum ripeness. These lots were then separately vinified and aged.

Winemaking followed classic Bordeaux methods with whole-berry fermentation. In the cool of the early morning harvest, grapes were promptly destemmed and the uncrushed berries were gently transferred into fermentation tanks. In order to carefully manage the tannins and resultant wine texture, our grapes are neither crushed nor run through a pump. Following fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels (50% new) for 19 months before bottling in May 2013.

Warm aromas from a dark fruit galette of plum and blackberry, gently wrapped in a waft of rose petals, resonate in the mouth. Neither opulent nor heavy, but revealing lively concentration and intensity, this wine exemplifies the savoriness of this unique growing season—a special profile that is unlikely to be repeated. The texture of this wine is soft, with an intriguing long-lived finish that reveals this wine’s subtle complexity and harmony. This wine is ideal for drinking now or over the next 5-10 years.