Palate

There’s a nose of Northwest marionberries and violets, with a rich palate from
attack to finish, with 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, balanced oak and tannin, will allow this wine to age ten years or more.

Growing Conditions

This vintage is unique because sugar and therefore alcohols were ideally aligned with acidity
and overall flavors. We’ve been striving for the kind of balance 2008 offered us. At Conner Lee
we grow four pounds per plant or one and a half bottles per plant—equivalent to Bordeaux
First Growth harvest yields. All our fruits are hand harvested to begin our winemaking. Our fruit
is always gravity transferred with our modern shaker tables where we hand sort and deliver
whole grapes to the fermenters by gravity. These processes allow us to preserve the abundant
natural aromatics.

Harvest

The merlot from Conner Lee was harvested on October 1st, with the cabernet franc harvested
October 10th at 23° brix hydrometer, 3.4 pH, and 8.0 organic acids. The Champoux Vineyard cabernet franc was picked fully
mature on October 2nd measuring 25° brix hydrometer, pH 3.4, and 7.0 g/L organic acid as fresh
fruit.

Bottling

The wine was bottled on January 18th, 2010

Winemaking

The merlot was 18 days on
skins, and then went directly to barrels. The cabernet franc fermented 15 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.