Palate
The 2005
vintage is an impressive wine with layers of suave tannins, fragrant roses, baking spices,
and youthful verve. Youthful now, the balanced fruit an d tannin will endow this wine
with a long life.
Growing Conditions
The merlot we harvested from Conner Lee Vineyard and the cabernet franc we
harvested from both Conner Lee and Champoux Vineyard. Due to Conner Lee’s two
thousand foot elevation, the growing season is shorter than the Horse Heaven Hills.
Conner Lee’s strengths lie inits sandy soil and the cold spring and fall nights, which
retain natural fruit acids while the hot summer heat ripens the clusters consistently. This
vineyard comprises 80% of the blend. Seventy miles south in the Horse Heaven Hills,
Champoux Vineyard has an outstanding thirty year history of growing Bordeaux
varietals.
Harvest
All our fruits at Buty are hand harvested. The merlot from Conner Lee Vineyard was
harvested on October 4th. The Conner Lee cabernet franc we harvested on October
18th. At Conner Lee we grew six pounds per plant of merlot and five pounds per plant
of cabernet franc. The Champoux Vineyard cabernet franc was harvested by hand on
September 23rd, at full maturity and seven pounds per plant
Bottling
The blend was finished and filtered prior to bottling on
February 10, 2007.
Winemaking
We macro-oxygenated during fermentation in open top tanks and
punched down by hand. We used free run only in the wines and finished sugar and
malolactic fermentation in barr els.
Aging
Aged entirely in traditional French Bordeaux Chateau
barrels, 50% new, for 16 months.
