This wine is like a Napa Cab from the 90’s before Napa went runaway with new oak and overripe Robert Parker notes. It has blackberry and blueberry and spices like a mountain fruit Cabernet should have, but without a sucker punch to the face.
The fruit for this wine picked at 23 Brix. It was partially destemmed, enjoyed a spontaneous native yeast fermentation, and aged in neutral french oak for 1 year.
2018 Thereafter Cabernet Sauvignon, Escher Vineyard
$45.00
The Escher Vineyard is a special spot on the planet. Just under one acre of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in the Mayacamas Mountains between St. Helena and Rutherford. This means it is east facing mountain fruit from Napa Valley, organically hand farmed by James and Lorenza. Hand pruned, hand harvested, hand everything’d. To say it is a rarity is an understatement.
A widely accepted theory of pruning is that you need eight leaves to ripen two clusters. These guys take it down to four leaves which encourages early ripening – giving the fruit greater balance and acidity.
Lorenza and James talk a lot about the idea that the wine is made in the vineyard, and this is a great example of the influence their meticulous farming plays on the development of flavors in this wine.