Palate
The mid-palate is powerful without heat or over extraction. The tannins are as they should be, strong but willing to give space to the fruit.
Growing Conditions
Mark Zukowski’s vineyard surrounds their house on the northwest slope of Mount St Helena just as highway 128 begins its climb from Knights Valley over the mountain to Calistoga. This is one of our favorite spots for Cabernet. Knights Valley is in Sonoma County but it is well inland, sharing more weather similarities with Calistoga in Napa County than with its adjacent neighbors Chalk Hill and Alexander Valley. There is just a touch of cool damp Sonoma nights to give the wine made from these grapes extra layers of flavor unlike any other Cabernet.
Harvest 2009 was an exceptional vintage with ideal weather conditions. The grapes ripened evenly without heat spikes, producing a perfect balance of fruit, acid and tannin, resulting in fruit forward wines of moderate alcohol and extraction.
Winemaking
The grapes were handpicked early in the morning, and triple sorted at the winery, leaving only perfect berries in the open top stainless fermenter. Fermentation was allowed to begin on native yeast followed by pure strain inoculation. The Cabernet and Merlot were blended before the end of fermentation and given 20 days extended maceration.
The barrels were racked at the wine’s first anniversary and again when the final blend was made, three months before bottling. Two previous vintages were made to hone the techniques and then used in other blends.
Aging
Barrels were 40% new, 55% French, 35% American, and 10% Hungarian.
Appearance
It is dark, almost black in color.
