Nose
Intriguing strawberry, sweet tobacco and beanilla
vanilla aromatics.
Palate
Blackberry
honey, puer tea and pomegranate flavors. A finish
filled with ever evolving essence of burnt caramel
and a red velvet texture.
Growing Conditions
2015 is the vintage in which drought was on
everyone’s mind. Rainfall the previous vintages
was minimal at best and 2015 was very dry for
most of the State. However, thanks to some early
season rains, Napa Valley received 75% of normal
rainfall. Thanks also to cool temperatures during
the growing season the demand for water was
kept to a minimum. These cool temperatures
also contributed to uneven fruit set which
resulted in much lower than average yields.
Sugar accumulation was also slightly ahead of
flavor development and so we harvested most
varieties with more sugar than in the previous
vintages. Small vintages typically result in more
concentrated wines and 2015 is no exception. We
just have much less of it in 2015.
Winemaking
Calera clone. Fiv day cold maceration followed
by 17 days of fermentation. A combination of
daily pigeage and pumpovers during time on the
skins maxing out at a fermentation temperature
of 88°F. 23 days total vat time followed by
malolactic fermentation in barrel.
Aging
Aged for
24 months in 100% new French oak barrels.