2004
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Clos Pegase
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2004 was certainly the earliest season in recent years, coming in even earlier than 1997. The typical mid-March timing of budbreak told us little of the future: the following glorious seven weeks of warm dry weather in spring saw bloom and set on our vines fully four weeks ahead of average. This continued through a classic warm summer to harvest in mid September – two weeks earlier than average, and of excellent quality and concentration, though meager yields. Palisades vineyard, on an alluvial fan in Calistoga, provides the core of our Cabernet Sauvignon with wines of deep color and intensity. Mitsuko’s vineyard in the cool Carneros region of Napa Valley has a tiny portion known as ‘Graveyard Hill’, with deep gravelly soils: these warm up earlier in the spring, leading to optimum ripening at the limits of the season, and giving us wines of elegance and finesse. Applebone surrounds the winery, and the close-planted (4 feet x 4 feet) vines actively compete with each other and so tame vigor and increase the intensity of the fruit. The Home Ranch, across the street form Applebone, has deep and fertile soil allowing our Petit Verdot to thrive, bringing density and texture to the blend. The individual parcels of wine were racked at the completion of malolactic fermentation in the winter of 2004/2005. In the following spring the wines were racked, blended and returned to barrel, followed by another racking prior to the 2005 harvest in fall 2005, and for a fourth time in winter 2005/2006. The wine was racked up to tank in April 2006 after a total elevage of 18 months. On the nose, powerful cassis fruit tones combine with plums, cocoa and coffee, with hints of licorice, leather and black olive. The palate is big, fleshy, and full bodied, with notes of wild berries and toffee combining with fine tannins, leading to a long finish.