Nose
This wine opens with sultry aromas of boysenberry, violet and vanilla.
Palate
Velvety and plush upon entry with intense flavors of black cherry and dark chocolate, it is lifted with fresh acidity and savory notes of grilled rosemary into an everlasting finish. Extraordinary in its depth, complexity and concentration, this wine requires time, patience and decanting. Best after 2019, it will reveal increasing opulence well beyond fifteen years of cellaring.
Growing Conditions
Vineyards: Pahlmeyer Estate Vineyard, Stagecoach
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Bottling
Bottled: May 6, 2015.
Winemaking
Grape clusters were gravity-fed onto a vibrating table with two screens to sift out materials other than grapes while we removed by hand any fruit that did not pass visual inspection. After gentle destemming, individual berries were then run through another hand-sorting pass to ensure only clean fruit was delivered into the fermenters. After five days of cold maceration, the fruit entered primary fermentation for two to six weeks, then gently basket pressed. 15% of the wine was fermented in French oak 500L puncheons, and the remaining in new Seguin Moreau Icone and Taransaud French Oak barrels and aged for 20 months.
Appearance
Black amethyst in color.
