94 Points, Wine Enthusiast
94 Points, James Suckling
92 Points, Wine Independent
92 Points, Decanter
Winemaker’s Notes
Deep red and inky purple hue with aromas of black cherry, boysenberry, Mission fig, graphite, and espresso bean with hints of black olive tapenade and fennel pollen. Full and richly layered on the palate with notes plum, dark cherry, cassis, toasted oak and dried herbs. A wine of complexity and nuance with freshness and elegance, silky tannin structure and a lingering finish.
Winemaking
The fruit was hand-harvested and brought to the winery in half-ton bins. The clusters were then sorted using a double sorting system. First, the clusters were sorted by hand, then through a small de-stemmer before the individual berries were sorted. The fruit was then delivered to a fermenter for a period of resting on skins. Warm fermentation temperatures along with gentle cap maceration achieved the desired color and structure for the wine before an extended maceration time on skins prior to pressing. The wine was transferred directly to barrel for 19 months of maturation.
Eighteen percent of the sorted berries were fermented in small concrete tanks and fourteen percent were fermented in French oak barrels, adding layers of complexity to the wine.