2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mountain Terraces Vineyard

The rich color introduces you to a nose filled with black cassis, blueberry, blackberry, cinnamon, anise, licorice, leather and dark cherries. Broad, full bodied structure fills your mouth and adds hints of coffee, dark chocolate, tobacco and black cassis. The integrated tannins allow for a smooth and lingering finish that tastes great now and will continue to improve with age. Optimal cellaring five to 10 years from vintage.

Mountain Terraces Vineyard is located on the southwestern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains, 1,800 feet above the Sonoma Valley floor. Owned and farmed by the Shaefer family. Steep, warm, high elevation site produces unparalleled depth and intensity.

Harvested by hand. Total maceration time 21 days. Yeast strain D254. Concurrent primary and malolactic fermentation. Extraction through gentle pump-overs, tailored to each lot. Base blend assembled 15 months before bottling. Final blend assembled two weeks before bottling. Lightly fined by lot and filtered to bottle.

The 2006 growing season got off to a late, wet start, with budbreak beginning at the end of March and generous rainfall late into the spring. High soil moisture going into the growth period allowed the vines to develop large canopies that required vigilant taming to maintain ideal fruit-to-canopy ratios. A record-breaking heat wave in July helped put an end to vegetative growth and spurred the vines onto the business of ripening fruit. The harvest period was nearly perfect, and so in the end the fruit attained excellent phenolic maturity as well as nicely developed varietal characters.

639 Cases