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2007 Napa Valley Estate Petit Verdot
August 19, 2010 by David
Filed under Petit Verdot, Winemaker Notes
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The well-drained, rocky soil and warm, sunny afternoons here on our 9.5-acre Estate make it the ideal place for the tough-skinned, slow ripening Petit Verdot. With just three rows, total, this wine is exclusive to our Wine Club.
Flavor profile: Dark, dense and luscious: Black plum, boysenberry, tobacco, sweet anise, vanilla and toasty oak with velvety tannins.
2007 Vintage: Classic vintage, widely recognized as the finest since 1997, yielding small, flavorful berries and outstanding balance.
Drink now and through: 2015
Food Suggestions
The deep, dark flavors are a natural with slow-cooked dishes like short ribs or your favorite pot roast. The richness of prime rib or rack of lamb work well with the lush black fruit. Try a glass with Colleen’s recipe for Bacon-Cured Fillet Mignon with Shallot Sauce.
2006 Napa Valley Estate Petit Verdot
August 4, 2009 by David
Filed under Petit Verdot, Winemaker Notes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Traditionally, Petit Verdot accounts for single-digit quantities in a classic Bordeaux blend – a little goes a long way. For those who love bold concentration and intensity of flavor, it’s a luscious mouthful as a solo player.
Flavor profile: Black plum, blackberry, black currant, cherry, tobacco, violet, vanilla, sweet anise and toasty oak.
2006 Vintage: Winemaker Geoff Gorsuch guided the wine through a warm fermentation and punched the “cap” of skins, by hand, to maximize the extraction of color, flavor and texture from the skins.
Drink now and through: 2014
Food Suggestions
Petit Verdot is the ideal partner for a grilled hanger steak or roast prime rib of beef. From Colleen’s recipe collection we recommend Savory Pot Roast.
How We Make Our Estate Meritage
In 2002, we had to re-plant our home vineyard here at the winery because the Chardonnay we planted in 1978 was diseased. The phrase “crisis as opportunity” comes to mind.
After almost 25 years, we had a chance to take a fresh look at our property and re-evaluate what belongs here. It’s a process! We hired three different consultants to take soil samples and check the meso-climate1 throughout the site. Much to our comfort and delight, the three consultants came back with almost identical recommendations: Plant red Bordeaux varieties2.
What Is Meritage Wine?
With that decision made, Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, immediately thought about making a Meritage wine. A Meritage (pronounced like “heritage”) is a blend of Bordeaux varieties and so the wines are usually Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot- based (there are white Meritage wines, too, but they’re less common). Since varietal wines had been the standard of excellence here in America, the Meritage Association was created to distinguish hand-crafted, high-quality blends from simple red or white table wines or generic, so-called “jug” wines. Geoff wanted the freedom to blend the varieties together in the way he most prefers, regardless of varietal percentage. He takes the best our property has to give, and blends it into a beautiful expression of our vineyard site to make a single- vineyard, estate grown, Meritage blend.
Planting The Vineyard
We hand-planted lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, some Merlot, and small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Our consultants helped us select the various clones3 and rootstock hybrids4 to match the variability of the soil throughout the 9.5 acres. The vine spacing also varies, depending on the anticipated vine vigor, or lack of it, in different parts of the property. Before planting we re-graded, installed drain-tile and brought down the acidity of the soil a bit.
The vineyard is on the valley floor between the old Rector Creek and the Napa River-Conn Creek junction. Small as it is, the vineyard has been divided into 11 different sections according to variety, clone, rootstock, spacing and other variables. These sections are monitored separately regarding water, nutrients, canopy management5, and of course, harvest date. It’s a lot for Geoff to juggle, but it’s the only way to get the kind of results we’re looking for.
From planting the rootstock or benchgrafts6, it is 3-4 years to the first small crop. We think of the vineyard as mature when it is 6 or 7 years old, and hope that it will be with us for decades.
