WINEMAKER’S NOTES: When the grapes arrive to the winery, we take the whole clusters and transfer them from bin into stainless steel and concrete tanks. The berries remain intact and protected with a constant blanket of C02 until their native yeasts begin to ferment the grape sugars from the inside out. A slow mortification breaks down the color components in the skins, infusing the juice inside the stillunbroken berries with a vibrant red hue. When fully dry, it is pressed in microlots and ushered into neutral French oak and concrete vessels for the final stages of development. Bottled after 8 months of aging, it shows amazing depth of flavor from these rugged, ancient vines is captured in the most transparent method we could devise.
VITICULTURAL AREA: Having saved a remarkable ancient vineyard from imminent “Cabernetification”, we continue to nurture its 130+ year-old vines, capturing a character unfound in mere 120-year-old vineyards. An original field-planted block, these Carignan plants are interspersed with Palomino (white variety from Jerez) and Alicante (a rare black-fruited vine that produces some of the darkest juice on the planet). Its decomposed sandy soils make it impossible for the vinepest phylloxera to survive, leaving these some of the last remaining self-rooted vines in the state.
