2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, Block D9, Tenma Vineyard, Napa Valley

Dark opaque scarlet in the glass with rich aromas of baked pie crust, blue fruit, and silky milk chocolate. This flavorful wine has notes of cassis, blackberry, and plum with a very smooth midpalate. This is an elegantly rich, full-bodied wine with moderate tannins that pairs perfectly well with grilled hanger steak with peppercorn cream sauce and blanched broccolini with garlic.

Cool hand-harvested Cabernet Sauvignon brought in at night was followed by prolonged prefermentation cold maceration, which allowed easy extraction of color and flavor compounds from the grape skins during fermentation. Extraction was individually tailored by wine lot, with the wines receiving on average one month on the skins to optimize aromatics and charm yet fully extract and develop tannins. The wine lots were racked in early spring, following the completion of Malolactic fermentation in barrel, then again just prior to bottling.

Tenma vineyard, on an alluvial fan in Jericho Canyon in northeastern Calistoga, produces Cabernet Sauvignon wines of deep color and intensity. This Cabernet Sauvignon is picked from Tenma Vineyard’s D9 block, located adjacent to the creek that runs through the vineyard. The soil in this block is extremely rocky and cannot be machine tilled. Planted with 30-year-old vines, this site provides more minerality than other surrounding sites.