Tasting Notes

Release Date: Spring 2003

With the lateness of the two previous vintages (‘98 & ‘99), the 2000 was a welcome change back to a more normal harvest season. All fifteen acres of our estate Cabernet blend were in the fermentors by the end of September.

The vibrant aromas are of black raspberry, cassis and oak spice. Lush at entry, this wine’s lively acidity gives the dark chocolate, cedar and cassis flavors shape and grip. An endless finish with suave, even tannins completes the wine.

Still a youngster, it should sit quietly in your cellar for another few years and drink well for another decade beyond. From Bordeaux-styled year, here is a collectible, age-worthy California Cabernet Sauvignon for half the price of the over-hyped, over-priced usual suspects.

Production

1,470

Tech Notes

Yield: 2.25 tons per acre Harvest: September 18 - 29 Numbers @ Harvest: 23.0° Brix, 6.8  grams acidity, 3.35 pH Barrel Regimen: 70 barrels total; new to three years old, thin stave French oak with 25% American Oak Bottling: August of 2002 no fining or filtration;

Reviews

88 points Robert Parker Jr’s The Wine Advocate - December 2003

Issue # 150

The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate boasts an opaque purple color as well as intense, concentrated, powerful flavors, but a monolithic character. It possesses abundant quantities of black fruits and earthy notes, but this 2000 remains closed, firm, and hard to penetrate. Perhaps more charm and complexity will emerge with an additional 5-6 years of bottle age. It should last 15+ years.

88 points Wine Spectator - May 2003

Lots of complex aromatics, with mint, bay leaf and sage adding to the currant and plum-scented fruit. Firm structure, tight chalky tannins clamp down on the finish, making this a candidate for midterm cellaring. Best from 2005 through 2012. –JL

87 points Wine Enthusiast Magazine  - August 2003

Great structure and balance, among the finest in the world, with all the pedigree that terroir brings to Cabernet. But vintage rules. This harvest, the wine is lean in fruit, with a pepper and sage profile.