Nose
Farm dust blackberries, boysenberry and crème de cassis aromatics enthrall. Dense brooding power seeps beneath the drifts of violet and huckleberry.
Palate
Firm, super fine-grained tannins fill the mid palate. Dark cherry and pomegranate reduction co-mingle with blue fruits, spice box, tobacco and dark chocolate tones to create the perfect accompaniment to the fruit purity.
Growing Conditions
This bottling is a distinctive selection of individual barrels sourced from our estate vineyards in Oakville. 2014 was a vintage of harmony and balance; freshness and verve. A beautiful growing season, filled with soft light and cool length, perfectly highlighted our Western exposure Oakville vineyards. The fruit source for this flagship blend is always anchored by our Leopoldina Vineyard, with additional buttressing and lift from our Fortuna Vineyard. Both are Eastern Oakville sites featuring prolific volcanic red soils that lend richness and texture to the wines. The Leopoldina Vineyard, high above the Valley floor, gives a dark unctuousness, power and structure to the wine. Sitting proudly on the alluvial fan below Leopoldina, our Fortuna Vineyard provides textured tannins, with dusted black fruit and spice notes.
Winemaking
Our winemaker crafts the blend by choosing lots that showcase dark, brooding, hedonistic characteristics, with dusty black fruits and an exotic floral lift. The barrels deliver wine of astounding purity and density. In the fermenter we found slower extraction, but with patience we achieved a remarkable richness in the resulting young wines. Resting in barrel, the wines reached a transformative moment where they lengthened and grew in flavor density. There is an early season fruit freshness and purity that we find exciting, supported by fine, soft tannins. The resulting wines display weight and importantly lift, which coupled with the subtle tannins, foretells distinctive wines that should be agers.
