Our 2014 fruit was some of the best quality fruit I've ever seen. Our vines benefited from the drought and until February what was considered the driest season ever, then came the rains, changing the landscape from the driest season ever to slightly below normal. A mild spring caused flowering in early May, setting the season up to be an early vintage. Our summer was typical, warm days and cool nights. With an amazingly calm September we were able to sit back and pick at optimum ripeness. We ended up picking perfectly ripe clusters on a earlier than normal harvest.
Classic and restrained a true testament to waiting for mother nature to work her magic.
“Off to the races” that's the 2015 vintage with a fast and earlier than normal harvest that was due primarily to the weather and the light vineyard yield. Even though the summer was generally mild, last spring’s dry warm weather contributed to early vine development. Thankfully, the summer was sunny and warm. Mid and late September days sometimes approached 100° F. All-in-all our vineyards flourished and produced perfectly balanced fruit.
Despite the abnormal weather the quality of the fruit is exceptional concentration, body and color with big, bold aromas and flavors.
The 2016 the harvest timing was even more compact than previous vintages, the early rains set our season off early with bud break, making smaller berries and smaller clusters that ultimately produced lowered our yields. Alas the warm, steady summer with extreme heat in June and July and then a cloudy August ended up ultimately producing exceptional fruit, picked well before the heavy rains of October.
Resting in barrel this vintage looks like our best yet. Colors is intensely dark, aromas and flavors have elegant depth and complexity.
Finally some rain! We had record-breaking rainfall in the winter off the season, filling the water table to capacity and replenishing soils. Bud break in mid April was right on time with perfect berry and cluster sizes. We survived the hot summer and multitudes of heat waves and made it to the cooler days of September. The showers of Mid-September rinsed off our fruit and gave us a few more weeks of hang time.
And then in an instant, soon after a picture perfect harvest the devastating wildfires hit the North Coast around Napa, Sonoma and Santa Rosa on October 9th. While this epic disaster resulted in hardship and thousands of charred acres we were blessed and very fortunate to have survived mostly intact, never threatening our wines during fermentation. Through all the hardships of 2017, we stayed true to our grape growing and winemaking philosophy, and it has proved to yield great results. The wines are stellar with excellent color and wonderful flavors. All-in-all our 2017 vintage will be an extraordinary one, one for the ages and years of thankful memories.
Notes Coming Soon...