Palate
This combination of See and P clones had elements
of white flowers, roasted nuts, pain grille, baking and cooking spices, kirsch,
cassis, balsam wood with red/black fruit core.
Growing Conditions
Outpost was established in 1998 with the vision of producing wines that are a living, breathing embodiment of this magical place. Truly one of the world’s great Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel growing regions, the unique terroir of the Outpost vineyards – the hard, rocky red soil, high altitude, gentle cooling breezes and sunny western exposure – produces fruit of incredible intensity and richness, with a distinctive spice you simply cannot find anywhere else.
Winemaking
Creating this wine was probably the simplest blending task of the vintage. Given the miniscule yields in 04, the two clones of Cabernet grown on our Petite Sirah hill were picked and fermented together. They produced the most exotic Cab lot we’ve experienced up here. We couldn’t find much missing until we tasted our other04 Cab lot, clone 337 grown on relatively flat piece next to the old vine Zinfandel. The 337 was all chocolate, cocoa and mocha, an exotic milkshake with tannin. We began by layering the 337 into the SEEP one barrel at a time until we had our blend. In the end, 11 barrels out of 14 made the cut.
Aging
75% new French oak barrels
