Variety: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Vineyard: Phoenix Vineyard
Location: Napa Valley, CA
Alcohol: 13%
Production: 233 cases

The rock content and sea minerals of these soils create unique and haunting wines with high-toned red fruits, perfumed and exotic, and a lightness in the mid-palate that is contrasted by a long, firm, and structured finish. Wine singular enough, yet complete enough, to be worthy of a single vineyard designation. The wine should reward long aging, or enjoyment young with a meal after a little decanting.

After multiple small hand harvests to ‘cherry pick’ individual vines as they become ripe, the fruit was fermented at low temperatures in small, open-top tanks and punched down by hand one to three times per day, depending on how the wine tasted during the fermentation. This wine was given 20 months of elevage in 20% new French oak, a few older French oak barrels, and a large foudre (to preserve the aromatics, similar to Barolo-style aging).

Phoenix Vineyard was planted in 1982 on the steep hillside above the winery. It had been planted to old heritage field selections of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. When the Matthiassons took over in 2017, they converted to Organic Farming, planted new vines where some of the old vines had given up, and focused on rejuvenating the old vines with compost and pruning. The steep and narrow rows require that most work be done by hand-it’s a challenging vineyard to farm but it’s worth it. The soils are some of the most unique in the entire Napa Valley. While most of the best vineyard soils in the Napa Valley are either of volcanic origin or are on mixed alluvial deposits, the East-facing steep hillsides of the Phoenix Vineyard sits on an undisturbed ridge of ancient marine shale soils.