Tasting Notes

Release Date: Fall 2009

With 93+ points from Robert Parker Jr’s The Wine Advocate, what’s not to love about this great value.

2006 opened up with tremendous promise. A frigid winter, full of snow and abundant rainfall are things we mountain winemakers look for. Bud break was late and the all important fruit set was rapid and complete. As predicted, harvest was late in October with cool autumnal temperatures, allowing us to harvest with exactitude.

Youthful aromas, with primary cassis, leather, and blackberry notes, this wine offers full, buoyant flavors of red raspberry, plum and cassis. Since it is moderately structured, it should improve until 2016 and hold for decades thereafter.

Production

2,632

Tech Notes

Yield: 2.3 tons per acre Harvest: September 28th-October 26th Numbers @ Harvest: 24.1 Brix, 3.6 pH, 6.0 grams acidity Barrel Regimen: French 50%; American 50% - 1/2 new; aged 24 months in barrel Bottling: August 2008; no fining or filtration Alcohol: 13.9%

Reviews

93+ points Robert Parker Jr's The Wine Advocate - February 2010

Issue #187

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate exhibits a saturated ruby/purple color as well as more subtle smoke, graphite, damp earth, crème de cassis, and blackberry characteristics, and a youthful, full-bodied mouthfeel with impressive concentration, texture, and length. This blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Franc from high elevation vineyards (2,000 feet) is capable of lasting two decades or more.

93 points Steve Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar  - November/December 2009

Ruby-red color. Cherry preserves, cassis, pipe tobacco and dried flowers on the nose, with a sexy note of oak spice emerging with aire.  Juicy and gently sweet red and bark berry flavors are complemented by notes of bitter chocolate and cherry pit, with a hint of spicy tobacco on the back end.  At once deep and graceful, with strong finishing cut and a lingering note of bitter cherry.

88 points Wine Spectator - Web Only 2010

A tightly wound, full-bodied youngster, exhibiting dried currant, sage, mineral and graphite. Complex and backward, this is firmly tannic and sure to show much better in five to seven years. Best from 2012 through 2020. –JL