About This Wine:

This, the sixth vintage of S.P. Drummer wines, is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (fifty-five percent) and Cabernet Franc (forty-five percent) from the Blair Vineyard located on the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley. The vineyard site is characterized by gravelly alluvial deposit soils that support excellent drainage and soil sustainability. This stellar wine is the best Blair Vineyard designate produced to date. Crop levels were down 25-35% during 2004 in The Napa Valley because of poor fruit set, yielding smaller clusters with smaller berries. Smaller berry size yielded an intensely aromatic wine with deep color and rich fruit flavors. The blend is lush and concentrated with a ripe stone fruit complexity and elegance.

TASTING NOTES: The intensity of aromatics push forward with exotic flowers, violets and lavender reflective of fine Cabernet Franc. Ripe black cherries and plums with layered cassis aromas fill the glass and the senses. Flavors start as a layered core of ripe stone fruits that are deep and complex, full in the mouth, and yielding muscular, but velvety, tannins. The summation of both Cabernet varieties yields a lush and elegant wine.

WINEMAKING: Components were fermented and aged separately prior to blending and bottling. The Cabernet Sauvignon remained on the skins for thirty-three days to allow for tannin extraction and softening, while the Cabernet Franc was pressed at dryness for maximum aromatic retention. Consistent with the stylistic design of S.P. Drummer wines, in order to develop mouth feel and textural components, heavy doses of oxygen and multiple rackings were employed in the first year of the aging process. A minimal approach was employed in the second year, with only one or two rackings to ensure continued maturation and natural clarification. The wine was aged twenty months in fifty percent new French Oak.

About The Winemaker:

Scott Peterson enrolled at the University of Maine to study Forestry in 1980. He soon decided he did not want to be stuck in the woods, so he bought a truck and a dog, and drove west with his sights on Malibu and the pursuit of windsurfing. Scott was derailed in Sacramento where he got involved in the restaurant trade. He soon developed a keen interest in food and wine, which led him to consider enrolling either in The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, or the University of California at Davis to study winemaking. Scott chose Davis, where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in Enology.

Scott’s first winemaking position was with Villa Mt. Eden, followed by Conn Creek and Kendall Jackson Winery. In this time, Scott had two mentors who influenced his views on winemaking. At Napa’s Conn Creek Winery Scott collaborated with the “father of California winemaking”, Andre Tchelistcheff, who had trained a younger generation of winemakers, including the Mondavis. At the time, Scott was in his mid-twenties and Tchelistcheff was in his early eighties. Tchelistcheff’s profound knowledge and systematic, scientific approach to winemaking, and his humble non-self-promoting personality had a great influence on Scott. He instilled in Scott the notion that with extreme attention to detail in the vineyard, and timely intervention in the cellar, special wines can be created. At Conn Creek, Scott also worked with Jed Steele, a skilled promoter as well as winemaker, with a wealth of winemaking. From Jed, Scott recalls, “You have to know how to make the wine taste good.”

Scott rapidly moved up the corporate ladder at Kendall Jackson. Instead of opting to open one of the winery’s prestigious new Cabernet facilities in 1996, Scott defected from corporate winemaking to start his own consulting business, as well as to produce his own wine. His first consulting position was with Argentina’s flagship producer Catena, where he succeeded Paul Hobbs as consulting winemaker. Scott oversaw production of Nicolas Catena Zapata, Catena Alta and the Gascon wines.

Scott comments about his winemaking experience in both the northern and southern hemispheres, “For the past six years, I’ve been harvesting grapes twice a year. If you really like to make wine, and I do, then harvest is really what winemaking is all about. Only by experience can you truly make world class wines.”

History:

Scott produced the first vintage of his own wine in 1999, which totaled 360 six-bottle cases. He named his blend S.P. Drummer, which derives from an important part of Scott’s childhood. Growing up in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Scott played the drums for six years as a member of the Fife and Drum Corps. He became attached to the drums, which were reproductions of the original drums used during the 18th Century.

The wine comes from Blair Vineyard, Scott’s favorite Napa Valley source of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, located on the Silverado Trail between Calistoga and St. Helena, just south of Three Palms Vineyard. At release, he priced the wine at $45, feeling he was giving an excellent value. He and his father blitzed the San Francisco market and sold most of the wine in a week.

Scott comments on the constituents of the blend (60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Cabernet Franc), “Cabernet Sauvignon grown on rocky sites such as Blair Vineyard produces small berries with chalky tannins, which are important for mouth structure. Winemakers normally choose Cabernet Franc for its perfume; it’s always floral with an herbal or oregano note. Blair Cabernet Franc is reminiscent of exotic black flowers and has an incredible density of flavor, almost atypical for this variety. I believe it is one of the top two or three sites for Cabernet Franc in North America.”

Certain aspects of S.P. Drummer are striking: a velvety mouthfeel, voluptuous concentration, elegant tannins and early drinkability. Scott racks the wine three to four times in the first six months, almost saturating the wine with oxygen. Experience has shown that heavy doses of oxygen when the wine is young develops mouthfeel by transforming the tannins from bitter and astringent to soft and mouth-coating.

Scott believes that oak should not to be a flavor on its own but should augment the aromatics and add structure to round out the wine’s mouthfeel. The wine gets its rich mouthfeel and vibrant fruit flavors by using more new oak (60%) for a shorter aging period. Scott bottles after 15 months instead of the customary 20-24 months, which he believes emphasizes the wine’s fruit character.

Technical Analysis:

Alcohol: 14.2%

Total Acid: 5.6 g/L

pH: 3.72

Total cases: 560 12-bottle cases