Growing Conditions
2012 was a blockbuster near-perfect vintage year, yielding a crop of spectacular fruit that produced a high-structure wine,
and should stand out for decades to come. Summer and fall had warm temperatures, but no notable heat waves, which in
turn permitted the grapes to reach a very even ripeness. We picked the Cabernet over three days under truly the most ideal
conditions in mid-October, and expect 2012 will turn out to be a new pinnacle for our Estate.
Vineyard: Pellet Estate
Bottling
Bottled May 28, 2014. This wine will be bottle aged for nearly 18 months before its fall 2015 release.
Winemaking
We hand sorted our grapes both prior to and after de-stemming, and following a four day whole berry maceration and cold
soak, we began primary fermentation. After nearly three weeks, the wine was gently pressed-off.
Aging
Racked to 75% new
Darnajou and Tarransaud 36 month-aged tight grain French Oak barrels to complete a slow secondary fermentation for
another few months. The intense fruit profile and high tannin structure resulted in us deviating from our prior two year’s 22
month barrel aging, as we felt an extra 3 months in barrel would not add significance to the wine’s characteristics - it already
had the best possible balance of fruit, tannins and oak. After 17 months in barrel, we blended the final wine at the beginning
of March and returned the wine to barrel for an additional two months to allow the flavors and components of the individual
varietals to marry.