Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2023
$ 45.00Our rarest wine, the Reserve Cabernet will age at great length and respond to the highest demands for varietal expression. The wine is based on a grape selection identified by long experience as the finest for our growing region, and grown in specially selected small vineyard blocks. It is aged at least a full year in old and new French oak barriques crafted for us in Piemonte, Italy. The sharing of a bottle of this wine contributes an occasion of its own, to pair with any celebration.
Featured profile
FOOD PAIRINGS
The great American hamburger, of black angus ground chuck, seared rare
Garlic-studded roast leg of lamb with rosemary purée
Médaillons of grilled sashimi tuna with seared foie gras
TASTING NOTES
Vigorous body and palate of Cabernet – dark berry, cassis, pepper, coffee, vanilla – with great robustness and length, but also elegant balance. A vintage of fine cellar-worthiness in our rarest wine.
Vinification
VINTAGE FACTORS
Cellar life 25 years
On the early morning of September 7th, we completed the season’s harvest of our entire range of white wine grapes – and they arrived in beautiful shape. Extraordinary aromatics, depth, and balances of sweetness and acidity launch us now upon the happiest winemaking we could ask for. This year’s harvest of Reds followed an orderly timetable of ideal ripening throughout, which reached its natural conclusion on the eve of the arrival of tropical storm Ophelia. The grapes we turn to for Octagon vaulted easily high enough to clear a memorable vintage of this benchmark wine, atop a richly age-worthy roster of Reserve Reds. And this, my 34th harvest, also marks the first of Cabernet Franc from our new, ideally sighted “Brethren” vineyard, named for the historic church beside it on Goodlow Mountain. In their own voice, this year’s Reds will carry the deepest resonance by recalling the wine which first drew national attention here — his Governor’s Cup-winning Cabernet Franc, from 1997.
Fermentation
6-8 days on the skins in stainless steel
Maceration
10-12 days
Aging
12 months new and used French oak barriques
Composition
Cabernet Sauvignon 90%, Petit Verdot 10%
Analysis
Alcohol, 13.5%
Residual Sugars, 0.2%
Total Acidity, 0.53%