Wine Spectator 90
"Plump, ripe and zesty, this offers soft, easygoing baked cherry, licorice and cracked pepper flavors. Drink now through 2023. 1,075 cases made." (90 pts.)

Wine Enthusiast 90
"Graham cracker and vanilla wafer aromas entice on the nose. This is a ripe, dense wine which boasts a sinewy backdrop of leather among a broad expanse of rich fruit flavors. A cinnamon note lingers on the finish." (90 pts.)

The grapes were harvested and sorted by hand prior to destemming and partial crushing. The fruit was fed by gravity into 3.5-ton open-top fermenters on skins for 14-28 days, with a quarter of the blend fermented using a submerged cap. This allowed for a more gentle extraction and created softer, more elegant tannins. Following primary fermentation, the wine was racked into French and American oak barrels for malolactic fermentation to round out the mouthfeel. After overseeing the wine as individual barrel lots through the winter, we assembled the majority of the blend in April to allow the flavors to integrate. We then aged the wine in 40 new French oak barrels, 30 used French oak and 30 new American oak for a total of 16 months.