Nose

bursts from the glass with fresh, smoky, cassis, blackberry and boysenberry aromas augmented by subtle cedar, black tea spice and sweet oak scents.

Palate

Supple on entry, the wine’s big, extracted, black fruit flavors coat the palate, while its firm underlying structure transports the rich fruit and zesty black tea spiciness into a long, savory finish

Growing Conditions

The long, cool, 2006 growing season – in some respects more Bordeaux-like than Californian – fostered intense, finely structured flavors in our Napa Valley grapes. The growing season commenced with a wet winter, which delayed bud break and led to a late flowering of the vines. Fine weather in June was followed by a heat wave in July, but cool weather returned in August and continued throughout the harvest season, resulting in a long grape ripening period that developed deep, concentrated fruit flavors in our Napa Valley reds. The grapes for our 2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux-style blend incorporating 16% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec, were harvested between October 3rd and October 27th.

Winemaking

After crushing and cold-soaking the grapes for 24-36 hours to enhance extraction, the juice from each vineyard lot was fermented separately in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, at warm temperatures, to fully extract color and flavor. Typically, fermentation completes in seven days, with the new wines left to macerate on the skins up to three additional weeks to maximize color and flavor extraction. Cool years like 2006, however, can result in Cabernet Sauvignons with elevated tannins, so we closely monitored evolving tannin levels during fermentation, using both quantitative and sensory analysis to determine the optimum maceration time for each lot. In 2006, each component of our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon aged six months in French oak barrels, 35% new, with the lots chosen for the final blend aged another 14 months in barrel before bottling in July, 2008.

Aging

20 months in French oak, 35% new

Food Pairing

An excellent companion to beef, rich pork dishes and game.