Nose
Deceptively sweet aromas of strawberries, raspberries and rose petals.
Palate
The flavors are dark, rich, lusciously mouthwatering, with cherries, boysenberries, tart plum skins, hints of leather, sweet pipe tobacco, and coffee beans. The tannins are firm, but not a bit edgy and the finish lingers with just a touch of anise.
Harvest
Similar to 12 and 13, a warm summer led to an early start to the 14 harvest. Temperatures stayed steady throughout harvest, maintaining ripening so grapes hung longer without sugars skyrocketing, providing balance, flavor development and concentration. This was a great harvest but one where we could not rely on previous vintages to determine the readiness of the fruit. Varietals and sites were ready in an order not seen before by our winemaking team, keeping them on their toes!
Winemaking
Crushed gently and dropped by gravity into small 1.5 ton bins, cold soaked a minimum of 48 hours, then inoculated with a variety of yeasts, hand-punched and pressed directly to barrel, where the wine finishes both primary and secondary fermentation.
Aging
The wine is on 40% new oak barrels, mostly French and American oak with a compliment of Eastern European oak for 16 months.
