Tasting Notes The silky texture and fruit complexity of Oakville are all here with dark blackberry and toasty, sweet oak spices mingling with dried herbs and clove complexity. True to the vintage, this wine’s rich ripeness shows the warmth of the growing season, balanced by a refreshing lift of acidity as its flows across the palate. 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Malbec, 2% Merlot.
Vineyard Notes 2015 started warmer and drier than usual, without a drop of rain in January. The dry conditions continued well into April with some early irrigation in the vineyards. A cooler May reduced fruit set and provided the first signs of a lighter crop for the vintage. The harvest brought in fruit at optimal flavor maturity before a series of heat waves hit the valley. Overall, the 2015 harvest is one of the earliest on record. The grapes for our Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon were picked between September 8th and September 26th.
Winemaker Notes The grapes were hand-harvested into small bins and carefully sorted in our gravity-flow cellar. The clusters were gently destemmed directly into traditional French oak tanks for cold soak, fermentation and extended maceration – a total of 34 days of wine to skin contact – maximizing the extraction of varietal character and complexity while keeping the tannins fleshy and supple. The new wine was drained and gently pressed into French-oak barrels (97% new) for malolactic fermentation, assuring seamless integration of fruit and oak. The final blend was assembled through repeated tasting trials over the 19 months of barrel aging. The wine was bottled in August of 2017.