Palate
Ripe red cherries, fresh fig and Grenadine aromas and flavors wrapped around a core of bright fruit and integrated layers of sweek oak. Lush and generous on the entry, the mid-palate is rich and vibrant before gaining focus on a finish that shines with polished, refined tannins and great balance.
Growing Conditions
Like previous vintages, the 2015 Saggi is a blend of two top Washington State Sangiovese vineyards. Candy Mountain Sangiovese is grown in a warm area of the Columbia Valley adjacent to Red Mountain and yields fruit with dark, ripe cassis aromas and flavors. Conditions are slightly cooler in the Yakima Valley, giving Boushey Vineyard Sangiovese its bright, lively character. The Wahluke Slope's Stone Tree Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon supplies bright, lively character. Bacchus Vineyard Syrah, grown east of the Tri-Cities, adds elegance and heightened color.
Harvest
An early spring and hot weather conditions during the summer growing season defined the 2015 Columbia Valley vintage. Building on the success of our ongoing canopy management program, we worked with growers throughout the season to hand-prune and trim each vine for good airflow inside the canopy while maintaining a uniform fruit zone. By September and into October, conditions returned to a more typical Columbia Valley weather pattern marked by warm days and cool nights to yield small berries with thick skins that produced high quality, fruit-forward wines.
Winemaking
Hand-harvested grapes were brought to the winery in small lots and crushed, then 5-10% of the juice was removed from the tank at the beginning of fermentation, a technique known as saignée used to enhance richenss and concentration. Extended maceration in small, two-ton tanks for an average of 30 days provided for optimal extraction and helped broaden the finished wine's mid-palate.
Aging
Aged 18 months in all French oak barrels, 55% new.
Appearance
A striking, brilliant garnet-colored wine.
