Palate
Raw, dynamic, and so expressive! This wine is glowing with personality, vivacity, and youthful exuberance.The palate has a rustic charm and sense of umami carefully balanced with notes of blueberry, blackberry, and resinous pine forest. Beautifully expressive now, the 2016 Estate Cabernet is a wine that will only improve with time in the cellar to integrate and mature into its full epic potential.
Growing Conditions
WE ALWAYS strive to honor the growing season in our wines based upon what Mother Nature brings us, and the 2016 vintage – our 35th! – illustrates this beautifully. This Cabernet Sauvignon is big and rich without being overwrought. Lovely aromatic nuances give way to great mouthfeel and length with wonderful, dynamic energy.
The 2016 growing season began early and we left an active cover crop in place to help reduce soil moisture and to moderate growth.We did very little leafing in anticipation of a warm season.Veraison came early, and to ensure that our resulting wines would be fresh and aromatic, we began irrigating deeply with long intervals in between.Though this classic vintage was marked by a series of heat spells during late veraison and harvest, fortunately these were followed by periods of quite cool weather and the vines were able to recuperate, preserving great aromatic precursors in the fruit.
Overall in 2016, berry size was moderate and the fruit condition was very good, yielding wines that are deep, layered, and refined, with the same beautiful edge and precision that our Estate Cabernet wines always display. Given the context of a warmer vintage, we are very happy to see the freshness and perfumed edge that we so value at Spottswoode.
Spottswoode Estate Vineyard Organically farmed since 1985
Aging
Aged 20 months
French oak barrels (new 60%)
