Nose
beautifully fragrant, complex bouquet of ripe dark cherry and boysenberry fruit complemented by scents of cedar, olive, dried sage, dark chocolate and toasty oak.
Palate
Rich and smooth on the palate with perfectly integrated tannins and balanced acidity, the wine’s sumptuous black cherry, blackcurrant and blackberry flavors are superbly balanced and persist into a long, elegant finish with hints of chocolate, mineral and savory oak.
Growing Conditions
2011 was a unique, challenging vintage. The year began with a wet winter and spring, followed by an atypically cool summer weather and several October rainstorms. Not surprisingly, the grapes ripened slowly, resulting in a prolonged harvest. At Cakebread Cellars, we took an aggressive approach to the situation, thinning fruit from the vines to ensure full ripening of the remaining clusters and sorting meticulously through the grapes at the winery so that only the best berries were sent to the crusher. This achieved our goal of making a classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with distinctively varietal aromas and lush, concentrated flavors. It’s worth noting that this is our first vintage of Napa Cabernet this century under 14% in alcohol.
Winemaking
Our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of dozens of different lots of grapes, each separately harvested, crushed, fermented and barrel-aged. Each lot is also cold-soaked for two days prior to fermentation to enhance the extraction of color and flavor. Tank size, yeast strain, fermentation temperature and barrel type are tailored to the fruit character of each lot. Some of the wines undergo an extended maceration (keeping the fully fermented wine on its skins for several weeks to extract more flavor and soften tannins) while others are pressed off their skins immediately.
Aging
18 months in French oak barrels, 47% new
