THE VINEYARDS

We have been making small amounts of cabernet sauvignon for the last 15 years to blend with our merlot vintages. We always liked the quality of the cabernet but never made enough to bottle on its own. In 2000 we decided to change that and produced our first cabernet vintage. The grapes for the Œ01 vintage are grown in the Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley.  The cabernet grown in front of our home has now been t-budded to zinfandel but we still pick the delicious cab from the Larrick Ranch Vineyard, right next door. We were also able to purchase the Indindoli Vineyard quality cabernet from the Russian River Valley. There is 5% cabernet franc blended in, which is grown further out in the Dry Creek Valley on the Jones Vineyard and 5% merlot from the Russian River Valley.

WINE MAKING NOTES

The 2001 cabernet is dark ruby in color and has varietal cabernet aromas of black fruit and herbs with integrated smoky oak aromas. It is also full bodied, forward and rich with medium and full tannins with a long finish. The wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels of which 60% were new and thin staved, and 40% 1-2 year old barrels. This wine shows a lot of promise for long term aging