Nose
The nose is cinnamon and cherries, with toasty oak and roasted pecans as aromatic background.
Palate
The mouthfeel is rich and lively at the same time. It tastes of cranberry jam, sweet oak, subtle bay leaf, dusty cherry and brown sugar.
Growing Conditions
The 2013 vintage in Napa Valley was another exemplary growing season and harvest. Excellent conditions saw near-perfect spring bud break, steady flowering, even fruit set, and a lengthy stretch of warm days with cool, often foggy, nights during the long summer months. The light rains that fell held off until Napa Valley's treasured wine grapes found optimal ripeness, bringing exceptional quality to the crush pad and into the cellar. The two vineyards utilized for this wine are Las Amigas Partners and Doucette, both of which had perfect yields of 3.1 and 2.9 tons per acre, respectively. These low yields contributed to great concentration of color, aroma and flavor.
Winemaking
Gentle and minimalist handling (hand sorting, gentle destemming, and manual punch downs) during the fermentation help to make this wine great. Pinot noir is a fickle variety that needs constant TLC in order to express true character. This wine was treated with kid gloves throughout harvest, aging and bottling.
Aging
All French oak barrels were utilized to age this wine for 12 months prior to bottling.
Appearance
Deep ruby in color.
Food Pairing
It is an extremely versatile wine. Some suggestions for pairing are: Pork loin, Cedar Plank Salmon and Homemade Cherry cobbler.
