A cooler growing season on the whole, with a couple of heat spikes, but they were earlier and seemed to have less impact.

The vineyards looked beautiful in early September – in fact they looked almost perfect. We had a rain event in September, and if you were lucky enough to hold on and wait it out, you were rewarded with a long, warm dry spell which allowed the clusters to hang on the vines and finish their ripening slowly.

This harvest was slightly different from ones in the recent past because there were no heat spikes during the harvest window, which allowed for healthy vines, healthy berries and an easier harvest overall.

This was another excellent growing season and the wines will hopefully reflect that luck and beauty.

Wines from our 2018 harvest

We picked and field sorted, then pressed whole cluster in Europress to tank to settle overnight and barreled down the next day. Native fermentation in barrel, we used 100% French oak, 20% new. We inoculated w CH 16 for 100% malolactic fermentation. 16 mos in barrel.

16 months in barrel.

Harvested:10/12/18
Bottled: 2/14/20
Produced: 144 cases

We picked and field sorted, then in the winery, sorted, destemmed and crushed before sending the grapes directly to a jacketed tank for a 5 day cold soak – which was great as having temperature control lends itself to an easier and more controlled ferment.

We let the must warm up to allow for a native fermentation which took 7 days, then we pressed to tank, settled overnight and barreled down next day. We inoculated with CH 16.

This wine spent 16 months in barrel, and we used 100% French oak, 33% new

Harvested: 10/12/18
Bottled: 2/14/20
Produced: 122 cases

We picked and field sorted 3 tons of Cab and brought the grapes into the winery to sort again, crush and destem. Next we sent the grapes to tank for a 5 day cold soak.

Again it was great to have the jacketed tank, so I could control the temperatures and make sure we got the long cold soak. We warmed up the tank and inoculated with Clos yeast. It was great to control the warm up and use the tank’s cooling in order to coax a longer fermentation.

After about 18 days we pressed the must to tank to settle overnight. We barreled down the next day to 100% French oak and 100% new oak.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

Harvested: 10/29/18
Bottled: 8/27/20
Produced: 109 cases