The Oakville district produces grapes and wine with incredible flavor and concentration. The fruit for our 2006 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon came from our Estate vineyard located in the heart of that renowned appellation. The vineyard consists of fourteen individual vineyard blocks, ranging from steep hillside terraces to the flat rocky red soil of the "Oakville Bench," 400 feet above the valley floor. Five Cabernet Sauvignon clones are planted around the estate, each one giving us a unique aroma and flavor profile to use when assembling our blends.

The 2006 growing season started with a cool spring followed by record setting heat in July. The result was compact flowering and fruit set, with even fruit maturity and ripening. Normal summer growing conditions and cool weather in October allowed a long hang time, excellent flavor development and great concentration.

Gentle fruit handling, small batch fermentations, and attention to detail are the foundations of our winemaking philosophy . Our grapes are hand-picked in the cool early morning, making the fruit less susceptible to damage during processing. Individual vineyard blocks are triple sorted, destemmed, and placed into small stainless steel fermentation tanks. For the 2006 vintage, the grapes were cold soaked for two days before the must was warmed and fermentation initiated. Smaller than usual berries, coupled with low juice-to-skin ratios gave us excellent flavor and color. To ensure the extraction of complex flavors and concentration of fruit, without the releasing harsh tannins, we used a warm, fast fermentation, combined with a relatively short maceration time. Our final 2006 Oakville blend is 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The wine was aged in Chateau style French oak barrels for 18 months prior to bottling.

Harvest dates: October 9th ~ October 27th, 2006
Growing region: Oakville, Napa Valley
Cases produced: 999 cases
Bottling date: May 5th, 2008

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