Palate
This captivating wine offers blackberry and black cherry flavors accompanied by notes of dark chocolate and spices such as thyme, rosemary, and cigar box. It is mouthfilling with gentle tannins.
Growing Conditions
Harvest got an early start due to warm and wet weather in February and March. Though the precipitation did nothing to ease our long-term fears regarding the water supply, it did allow the vines to get a healthy start to the season.
The rest of the season progressed dreamily, with few extremes of temperature. Harvest was on track to get an early start—and it did—but cool mornings in August slowed down ripening, giving the grapes more time to develop flavors.
Winemaking
Grapes for this wine come from a neighboring vineyard owned by the Collins family. These gnarly vines, planted on a cobbly swale in 1923 were hand-picked and gently destemmed without crushing, and then fermented in open-top fermenters for three weeks, receiving two or three punch-downs per day. It then aged in French oak for 16 months.
Food Pairing
This wine will pair beautifully with prosciutto and melon, cracked Dungeness crab, grilled halibut, or a pasta primavera with peas, fava beans and asparagus.
