Letter from the Winemaker

The idea of creating this Cabernet came while working in cellars

around Napa Valley. After realizing how additives were regularly

being utilized in the production of high end wines, we truly wanted

to see if a great wine could be made without any assistance. There is

nothing wrong with additives, but we felt we really wanted to showcase

the beauty and diversity that this Valley has blessed us with. To

us, the perpetuation of site and time are the most beautiful parts of

what a great wine can bring. Not continuity or homogeny, which has

become much too commonplace in our industry. Representing each

individual site through the unruly lens of vintage allows us to revel in

the obstacles, experiences and triumphs that each year brings.

We harvested on Halloween, in what came to be the perfect season,

to conduct our experiment in minimal intervention. Long hang time

was allowed by a very mild Summer and early Fall in Atlas Peak. This

hang time gave us grapes that were desiccated and dehydrated, but

were counter intuitively not high in sugar or lacking in compositional

acid. The common local practice of adding water, acid and coloring

agents were, in turn, not necessary. Thus, the first steps in an opportunity

to prove to this industry we weren’t wrong were paved. So, with

a disregard for technology and a lack or distrust for the little common

sense our prior training had provided, we pushed down the path to

innovation through a reversion to tradition. A long and slow fermentation

was allowed to occur naturally with indigenous yeast. The

grapes were not sorted or moved unnecessarily with their stems included

and left until pressing. Light pressing occurred around Christ

mas, approximately 6 weeks after the fruit was brought in. At this

time fermentation had only just begun. Fermentation continued in

barrel moving slowly, yet steadily for the next few months. This allowed

the character of the French Oak the juice was resting in to integrate

into the character of the wine. From their infancy, they were

woven into one and allowed to be. The wine was bottled after a year

in said once used, French Oak barrels and bottled without any addi

tives aside a minimal amount of So2 pre-bottling to prevent bottle

variation and premature oxidation.

In art there is no right or wrong, just inspiration.