Nose
The nose
opens with sweet fruits, brown sugar, and syrah’s pepper notes.
Palate
Exotic flavors of blended fruits
fill the palate and follow through the long finish. The naturally firm acids are clean and connect
with smooth tannins. In my 15 year experience making Champoux cabernets, they develop
their perfume fully by the seventh year of age and remain youthful until twelve years old.
Growing Conditions
Due to winter vine damage from
the cold, greater care was provided from pruning to harvest to yield outstanding fruit. Our final
cellar blend allowed for a smaller bottling due to stricter selection of th e best lots.
Harvest
Harvested by hand on October 10th, the Champoux Vineyard cabernet sauvignon was
physiologically ripe at 25.4°brix and pH of 3.55. The syrah was harvested on September 28th at
26.5°brix.
Bottling
August 2006
Winemaking
The cabernet was fermented on skins for twenty-five days, and the syrah for ten
days.
Aging
We chose one American cooper for the wine and aged it in 45% new barrels until bottling. The remaining barrels are mature French oak