Palate
There’s a
nose of Northwest marionberries and violets, with a rich palate from attack to finish, and
our stylistic supple texture. Rich merlot dominates the young palate and compliments
the cabernet franc’s grip and fragrance. Youthful and accessible now, the intense fruit,
natural acid and tannin, will allow this wine to age ten years or more.
Growing Conditions
This vintage is another powerful one with a hot September. At Conner Lee we grow
four pounds per plant, equivalent to Bordeaux First Growth harvest yields.
Harvest
All our fruits
are hand harvested, hand sorted on modern shaker tables and gravity transferred to
tank. These processes allow us to preserve the natural abundant aromatics.
The merlot from Conner Lee was harvested on September 16th, with the cabernet franc
harvested October 8th at 23º brix hydrometer and 8.0g organic acids. The Champoux Vineyard cabernet franc
was fully mature September 2nd measuring 24º brix hydrometer.
Bottling
The wine was bottled on January 19th, 2011.
Winemaking
The merlot was 14
days on skins, and then went directly to barrels. The cabernet franc fermented 22 days
on skins before barrel aging. We aerated during
fermentation in open-top tanks with unique proprietary air tools, hand punched down and
selected only free run wine to blend.
Aging
The wine was aged in Bordeaux Chateaux barrels
from select coopers with 60% of them new.