Textbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, Napa Valley, California

The core of this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon comes from two sites situated within the Oak Knoll and Oakville AVA’s. The Oak Knoll Cabernet site exemplifies its provenance with incredible balance. It is not ‘over-the-top.’ The Oakville District Cabernet site, next door to Screaming Eagle, again strutted its stuff, delivering deep color, high-quality grape tannin and aromatics. At harvest, clusters were field-sorted and then hand picked, and then at the winery hand-sorted (berry-by-berry) at an average of 24.6 Brix. Cold soaking for 2 days in open-top temperature-controlled fermenters developed color and flavor (in the absence of alcohol). Fermentation began spontaneously with prevailing, local yeasts and one daily punchdown kept the cap immersed in must, extracting superb flavor and structure. After inoculation with cultured yeasts and twenty-four days on their skins the must was gently pressed into French oak barriques at 5 brix where it completed fermentation. One Oakville District Merlot lot was used, adding really nice mouthfeel and mid-palate.