Wines

For our wines, we carefully select only grapes from old-growth, hillside vineyards with low harvest-yields to intensify the ripe flavors and aromas of the grapes.  Moreover, we hand-harvest the grapes when they taste ripe, not when they have a predetermined sugar level (we have found that, even with a theoretical ideal sugar level, the grapes do not necessarily have the flavors we want, so we pick on how they taste), and then hand-sort the grapes to help ensure that only the best fruit is used in our wine.  We then craft our wine with a maximal naturalist / minimal interventionist approach, age our wine only in high-quality French oak barrels, and bottle our wine when the ripe berry flavors have been enriched, but not overwhelmed, by the oak.

Our objective is to make a food-friendly, high-quality, medium-bodied, well-integrated, moderate-alcohol wine that will complement your food, and that will enable you to taste and experience the natural, ripe, lush flavors and bouquet, and the rich varietal character and supple mouth-feel of our wine.

We produce a limited selection and quantity of wines in order to maintain the artisan, high-quality standards of our wine.  Specifically, if we think the grapes are suitable at harvest, we produce some of the following varietal red and white wines:

Our 2006 vintage red wines, and our 2008 vintage white wine, have now been released for your enjoy- ment!   However, we have reserved some of our previous vintage wines for you on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Our 2006 vintage wines include Cabernet Sauvignon (Stags Leap District), Syrah (Calif.Shenandoah Valley), and Zinfandel (Russian River Valley), and are all crafted in our elegant, food-friendly style:

• Our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon received the very prestigious Platinum Medal at the 2009 Wine Critics International Wine Competition. 

• Our 2006 Syrah received the very prestigious Double-Gold Medal at the 2009 San Francisco International Wine Competition. 

• Our 2006 Zinfandel received the prestigious designation of "Outstanding Wine" by the Connoisseur's Guide to California Wines, and Silver Medal at the 2009 San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Our 2008 vintage wine is a Chardonnay (Russian River Valley), is also crafted in our elegant, food-friendly style, and received the prestigious Gold Medal at the 2009 Wine Critics International Wine Competition.

All of our 2006 vintage red wines were (1) barrel-aged for seventeen months in high-quality French oak barrels (we used a mix of new and one-vintage-old barrels in order to give the wines the optimum time in the barrels to soften their tannins, to integrate their flavors, and to extract enough oak tannins to enhance the flavor and taste complexity of our wines without over-whelming their fruit flavors), (2) racked several times during barrel-aging to gravity-clarify the wines, (3) bottled unfiltered to maximize their natural mouth-feel, and then (4) bottle-aged for twelve months before releasing them to give the wines time to "relax" to get over "bottle shock", and to further develop their soft tannins, rich flavors, and balanced, smooth, mouth-feel and finish.

All of our red wines have been crafted in an elegant, medium-bodied, very food-friendly style, with moderate-alcohol and soft French oak tannins, and are well-integrated, well-balanced with ripe berry flavors and delicious, subtle bouquets of varietal fruits.

Our 2008 vintage Chardonnay was (1) barrel-fermented in stainless steel and French oak barrels, (2) barrel-aged for nine months in stainless steel and French oak barrels (we use this mix of stainless steel and French oak barrels in order to give the wine the optimum time in the barrels to soften its tannins, to integrate its flavors, and to extract enough oak tannins to enhance the flavor and taste complexity of the wine without over-whelming the fruit flavors), (3) racked several times during the barrel-aging process to gravity-clarify the wine, (4) bottled unfiltered to maximize its natural mouth-feel, and then (5) bottle-aged for ten months before releasing the wine to give the wine time to "relax" and get over "bottle shock", and to further develop its soft tannins, rich flavors, and balanced, smooth, mouth-feel and finish.

Our Chardonnay wine has also been crafted in our elegant, medium-bodied, very food-friendly style, with moderate-alcohol and soft French oak tannins, and is well-integrated and well-balanced with ripe pear, caramel and hazelnut flavors, a subtle butteriness, and a delicate bouquet of floral and citrus aromas.

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon This varietal is made from world-class grapes grown in the Stags Leap District appellation in Napa Valley.  It is a fruit-forward, lusciously structured, supple wine with a medium-bodied mouthfeel and subtle flavors of ripe currant (cassis), blackberry, plum, and black pepper. <<Click image for larger view	2006 Syrah This varietal is made from mature-vine grapes from the the highly-regarded California Shenandoah Valley appellation in Amador County.   It is a delicious, fruit-forward, medium-bodied wine with subtle flavors of ripe black cherry, blackberry, leather, mushroom, and black pepper. <<Click image for larger view
2006 Zinfandel This varietal is made from old-vine grapes from the highly-acclaimed Russian River Valley appellation in Sonoma County.  It is a medium-bodied, very supple, well-balanced wine with subtle flavors of ripe black cherry, blackberry, black pepper, licorice, and leather. << Click image for larger view	2008 Chardonnay This varietal is made from old-vine grapes from the highly-acclaimed Russian River Valley appellation in Sonoma County.  It is a medium-bodied, supple, well-balanced wine with subtle flavors of pear, citrus, caramel, and hazelnut, and a hint of butteriness and toasted oak. << Click image for larger view

If you would like to purchase our wines, please go to our Order page.  If you would like to receive our Wine Club discounts and first notification of our next wine release, please join our Wine Club.