Nose
The wine has a note of truffle, followed by black pepper and an exotic berry note such as cooked blueberry and strawberry.
Palate
The wine is juicy with layers of fruit flavor and a note of ink on the palate.
Harvest
Harvest 2015 was one of our earliest years on record. The persistent California drought and a cool spring during bloom led to low yields in the vineyard and an early bud break. Careful irrigation and canopy management were key and allowed our growers to maximize quality and create beautifully ripe and balanced fruit. The wines resulting from the 2015 vintage are some of our favorite to date.
Winemaking
The fruit was hand-picked and the berries were hand-sorted before and after the destemmer. The juice went through a 2-day cold-soak process to settle the solids before inoculating with an assortment of French yeast strains. Fermentation temperatures were kept cool to maintain fresh fruit flavors and pump-overs were executed twice daily to extract the rich color and tannins from the skins. After fermentation, the wine was moved to barrel to initiate malolactic fermentation and was racked twice before bottling and extended aging.
