HARVESTED: September 10 – October 9, 2016
VINEYARD LOCATION: Los Altos Hills (chest-thick 50+yr old vines), Saratoga, Los Gatos.
SOILS: ranging from deep clay to sandy loam to broken granite
BOTTLED: May 2018, 360 cases
COMPOSITION: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
ALCOHOL: 13.7%
WINEMAKER: Colin McNany
VINTAGE NOTES
After quite a serious multi-year drought, the winter rains almost returned to normal, bringing temporary relief to our heat stressed vineyards. January was warm, and kicked the vines into a stage of advanced bud break. A cool summer helped push the harvest back about a week, allowing for maximum hang time. This hang time was very welcomed to encourage the phenological ripeness of the berries, developing ripe flavors and lignified tannins. We were able to harvest the vineyards successionally throughout September which resulted in some great wines to come.
WINEMAKING NOTES
Salinian Block is a cuvee of our highest end Cabernet vineyards and barrels. Each lot is destemmed, 100% whole berry and hand sorted. Isolated ferments are cold soaked for 5 days, inoculated in open top fermenters with commercial strains, and kept on skins up to 25 days via extended maceration. Aged in a combination of high end French and Hungarian oak for 18 months with 100% native malolactic fermentation, the best barrels are carefully selected, benched and compiled into a cuvee. Racked once to tank and gravity feed to bottle.
TASTING NOTES
A classic example of mountain grown Cabernet Sauvignon. Dusty dried cherries, fresh pomegranate, rose petals and juniper berries aromatically infuse to create this intoxicating bouquet. Elegant and firm, the lignified tannins dance with refreshing acidity to deliver fleshy red plums and blueberries throughout the supple finish.
CELLARING
Enjoy between 4-6 years.