Nose
On the nose there is creosote, black raspberries, dark spices, cloves and a little bit of slow smoked meats.
Palate
On the palate this is extremely rich and dense with ample tannins that are sweet and add frame and balance to the wine. The finish is at least 30 seconds long and exhibits a faint bit of mint just on the end.
Growing Conditions
Stagecoach’s Pritchard Hill is ideally located to get the early morning sun over the Vaca Mountain range but later int he day to be protected from the very hot late afternoon sunlight. The benefits to this is that it starts off the fruit early in the morning but keeps the fruit from getting sunburnt later in the day. The extremely thin and rocky soils there keep the vines from producing too much fruit so thinning is able to be done on a very precise level since these thin soils help to promote a loose fruit set with a very even and complete fruit development.
Harvest
This vintage was meticulously crafted with handpicked Stagecoach Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon graves harvested in small bins to retain their puroity and preserve freshness before being pressed.
Winemaking
The juices were placed in a single stainless steel tank with the fermenting taking 18 days with a maximum fermentation temp at 87 degrees. Both the press and free run juice were combined into the tank and then put into 100% new French oak from Taransand and Darnajou. The wine received 4 rackings before being bottled both unfined and unfiltered 18 months later.
Appearance
Straight away this wine shows an extremely dark color with very little lightening at the rim.
