About This Wine:

The Atlas Peak Appellation is renown in Napa Valley for producing legendary Sangiovese. Over 23 years ago, Piero Antinori brought his renowned experience of the varietal here from his homeland in Tuscany. This wine showcases incredible color and complexity, pushing the limits of this varietal with nuances of cracked pepper, black fruit and light forest scents. The palate is layered with sweet red cherry dominating the fleshy fruit profile. Typical of the varietal and area, this Sangiovese has much to offer the discriminating palate with wonderful structure, acidity and back palate length. We are very excited to have this never before seen offering added to our portfolio of reds. Cellared correctly, this wine will age brilliantly for 8 or more years.

The Vineyard: In 1985, the Antinori family and other business partners discovered a beautiful estate in the Napa Valley, situated on the Atlas Peak plateau at an altitude of 500-600m above sea level. To the Antinori’s, the hilly and rocky landscape is very much like Tuscany but above all it is ideal winegrowing country. In 1993, their increasing certainty of the potential of this terroir led the Antinori family to make a personal investment in this project and assume direct ownership of the estate, which includes about 500 acres of vineyards. Included in the acreage is Caber-
net Sauvignon, Merlot and of course the family’s favorite, Sangiovese. The vines are now well into their late teens and are truly reaching their full potential. Because of its elevation above the Valley floor, this is a relatively cooler site, even suitable for the Pinot Noir that grows nearby, which allows for incredible hang time and maturity before harvest.

Harvest Notes: Harvest took place late on October 11th, 2007 at a perfect 26.5 Brix. Yields were very low in 2007, temperatures were perfect and rain was never a threat. Approximately 5% Petite Sirah from the Baranek Vineyard in Clarksburg, Ca. was co-fermented in the blend.

Vinification and Ageing: A somewhat rare technique critical in the making of this wine is ripasso. We love this winemaking procedure and it is typical in all of Venge Vineyard’s Sangioveses. Ripasso is an Italian term describing the use of the skins of one varietal during fermentation to lend its qualities to the juice of another. (Essentially it means trading out the skins of a lower intensity varietal, like Sangiovese, with that of a more power driven varietal like Petite Sirah in this scenario.)

Italian Amarones are made in this fashion. Although very inexact in its science, it is a wonderfully artistic method and tool that when used correctly gives most Sangiovese proper weight and density. In this example, Petite Sirah skins lend an incredible amount of flavor and dark purple color to the wine that it possibly would not have had otherwise. Via ripasso, we are able to give this wine the opportunity to marry from day one, resulting in a wine with much fuller body and ripe character. The wine was aged for 19 months in one-year-old used Francois Frères tight grain French Oak barrels. Indigenous malolactic fermentation was employed.

About The Winery:

My Journey began on the shoulders of a giant within the California winemaking community – my father, Nils Venge. Like many in his generation of wine producers, he cut his teeth in Napa Valley in the ‘70s and ‘80s as the region was establishing notoriety and nobility amongst the world’s great wine producing regions. His establishment as a force in the production of world class wines occurred at Groth Winery, with the production of the 1985 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, scoring a perfect 100 points from wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr.—the first ever awarded to a California producer. He started his own winery in 1988, Saddleback Cellars, where as a young man, I grew up with the winery as the backdrop for what would become my life’s work.

Today, I carry the Venge heritage forward, building on the experience and guidance instilled in me by my father, while embracing an era of experimental and technological advancement in winemaking. Never before have the standards been as high as they are today. Greatness is no longer the byproduct of mastery of one’s craft, it is the expectation.

At Venge Vineyards, we believe the vineyard provides the foundation for achieving greatness in winemaking. In essence, site determines the winemaker’s destiny. As such, we strive to find and farm only the best vineyard sources at perfectly balanced yields, pushing the bounds of our expectations surrounding viticultural management and varietal composition. In the cellar, minimalist intervention carries our vineyard selection and management forward with balanced macerations, clarification without filtration, and aging in a combination of new and used barrels to gently support the natural tannins we find in each fruit source.

These efforts aid in the achievement of growing complex, rich sources of fruit and producing wines that are characteristically distinct. Together, when grown, produced and blended, our wines sing the song of greatness.

Kirk P. Venge – Proprietor & Winemaker

Technical Analysis:

Varietals: 95% Atlas Peak Vineyard Sangiovese, Atlas Peak, 5% Baranek Vineyard Petite Sirah, Clarks-
burg, Ca.

TA: 0.63 g./100mL

pH: 3.77

Alcohol: 15.5%

Bottled: May 4th, 2009.

Handling: Unfiltered and Unfined

Production: 300 Cases