Napa Valley

Cabernet Sauvignon

Anatomy

United States

California

Hesperian Wines

Hesperian Kitoko Vineyard

Hesperian Napa

Kitoko  Vineyard,  named  for  the  Congolese  Lingala  word  for  “beautiful,”  is  a  14.2  acre  vineyard  high  on  Atlas  Peak,  planted  to  Cabernet  Sauvignon  in  2000  and  2003.  The  vines  are  today  entering  their  prime.
The  soils  here  are  extremely  rocky,  dry,  and  poor,  quite  similar  to  Pritchard  Hill  to  the  north,  studded  with  fractured  andesite  rock  and  boulders.  The  proximity  to  the  San  Pablo  Bay  brings  persistent  winds  which—along  with  the  heat  and  arid  soil,  cause  the  set  of  very  small  berries  and  loose  bunches,  and  consistently  delay  ripening  each  year.  Dry  farming  is  not  possible  here,  and  the  vines  are  watered  for  brief  stretches  to  optimize  ripening.  “It’s  a  pile  of  rocks,”  says  Philippe.  “The  vines  suffer.”
Philippe,  a  master  viticulturist,  works  this  hill  with  the  help  of  one  vineyard  worker,  meticulously  training  the  vines.  Green  harvesting  is  not  necessary,  because  the  vineyard’s  natural  parsimony  yields  only  2  tons  per  acre  (30  hl/ha)  in  a  good  year.  Yields  this  low  make  truly  memorable  wine  possible.  
In  his  time  at  Château  Clarke,  Philippe  learned  the  importance  of  small  but  critical  enhancements  in  the  vineyard.  Optimum  quality  is  achieved  using  a  series  of  small  operations  that  build  upon  one  another,  all  working  towards  vineyard  health  and  completely  ripe  fruit.
Philippe  believes  that  understanding  a  vineyard  is  an  ongoing  process,  a  closed  feedback  loop  that  takes  years  to  understand.  Each  year,  he  learns  something  new  that  he  can  use  to  achieve  a  better  result  the  following  vintage.  “This  will  go  on  for  years  until  I  get  the  best  out  of  this  specific  vineyard,”  he  says. 
Langner’s  perfectionism  is  seldom  more  apparent  than  at  harvest  time,  when  individual  rows  are  picked  incrementally,  at  the  point  of  optimum  ripeness,  then  fermented  in  separate  lots.   

Napa Valley

Hesperian Wines

California

2014

Anatomy

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