Growing Conditions
Our sixth vintage from this small, outstanding vineyard on the lower slopes of the eastern Oakville hills. “Pedregal” means a rocky place in Spanish, and that is certainly a distinguishing feature of the site. During 2008 we agreed to a long-term lease of this vineyard which gives us complete control even through any change in ownership, so this is the second vintage we’ve directed farming ourselves (we converted to organic).
The 2009 vintage produced wonderful wines, both red and white, as the vintage came close to ideal. There were steady, moderate temperatures throughout the growing season and no desiccating heat spikes.
Bottling
Bottled without filtration in February 2012.
Winemaking
The Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot (8%) were co-fermented. As with all of our wines, it went throuhg native yeast and malolactic fermentations.
Aging
Aging the 2009 Pedregal on its fine lees has coated the tannins and smoothly integrated the wood, and we left this vintage 24 months in completely new French barrels.