Palate
tannins and sweet fruit.
Growing Conditions
To put it simply – this was one of our great modern vintages in the Napa Valley. It almost had a
Bordeaux feeling to it – moderate rainfall for all but three months before the real rains arrived in October. By
then, everything was in the barn. No significant heat spikes, which made for a very long even growing season. The
only complaint I had with all our vineyard sites was, I wish I had harvested more grapes. Cluster size and weights
were down, and we were 20% off of average when we finished picking. It was one of those years you wish you just
had more grapes. Spectacular quality, both reds and whites. The wines have deep colors, structure, concentration,
and depth of flavor.
Winemaking
The 2016 Napa Valley Cabernet is a blend from three
distinct very steep, mountain single vineyards on Soda Canyon, Mt. Veeder
and Spring Mountain. The final blend ended up being 100% Cabernet from
clones 4 and 337. All three lots were fermented separately and then, after
several blending trials, assembled. Like all of our Cabernets, this was bottled
both unfined and unfiltered after 18 months in new Darnajou and Taransaud.