Nose
The aromatic profile suggests notes of cinnamon, pine bough, molten dark chocolate, and cassis reduction.
Palate
Given the vintage, this wine has a very sleek, viscous mouth feel that coats the entire palate with swirling notes of crushed black raspberries, orange oil, green peppercorn, boysenberry and fresh loam. The tightly-knit tannins remain fine grained allowing the finish to extend for quite some time. This wine has plenty of freshness and dense, rich fruit to offer in its youth but will certainly award extended cellaring.
Growing Conditions
The most pertinent note to start with for this vintage is the significant decrease in quantity. Usually, cluster size in all 3 blocks at the vineyard is medium-plus and we have enough clusters to finely tune how much fruit we hang going into harvest to balance color profile and flavor complexity. In 2015 we found the crop load to be smaller in terms of overall clusters and berry size. While the downside is less wine available, the upside is small berries and smaller clusters creating more concentrated flavors, saturated color and balancing structure.
Aging
20 Months, 100% New French Oak
Appearance
The wine immediately draws you in with its completely opaque deep purple hue.
