Palate
Offers plenty of sweet tannin as well as red and black fruit notes intermingled with licorice and crushed rock, and a medium to full-bodied, elegant style.
Growing Conditions
The season started late, with ample rainfall. After several years of very dry conditions, rain was welcome, though it pushed back the ripening cycle (bud break, flowering, and fruit set) by about two weeks. Frost was never a problem. The summer that followed was cool, and growers worked to adjust canopies and crop loads to accommodate the slow pace of ripening. Veraison occurred about two weeks late, and by the middle of August many were predicting that harvest would be almost three weeks later than average. A couple of heat spikes in late August and early September (some to well over 100℉) presented challenges. The harvest was late but the grapes needed the extra hang time to develop. The brief warm spell at the end of September, and another in the middle of October, helped the plants eke out a little more ripeness.
