Palate
This powerful wine shows intense flavors of boysenberry, plum, blueberry, camphor, smoke, coffee, cedar, and Asian spices, with sweet but serious tannins. The wine is wound tightly in its youth with a dense core of fruit and excellent structure. Decant this wine in its youth. With proper cellaring, it will evolve for ten to twenty years.
Growing Conditions
Merryvale’s Saint Helena Estate Vineyard lies on an eastern ridge overlooking the Napa Valley at almost one thousand feet elevation. Replanted in 1997 under the direction of Michel Rolland, David Abreu and our winemaking team, this vineyard consistently delivers grapes that stand out for their plush fruit character, complexity and silky tannins.
Vineyard Designation: Merryvale St. Helena Estate
Winemaking
The 2010 Estate Cabernet is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. The handpicked grapes spent 27 days on skins before undergoing both native and inoculated primary fermentation, and native malolactic fermentation.
Aging
We aged the wine for 22 months in 90% new French oak barrels.
