At its core, our Estate Reserve Cabernet is the foundation of what we produce here. It is from this wine that the higher-end Signature and Aurum wines are carved out for special bottlings, and from this wine the non-reserve bottling is removed. It is designed to be derivative of the vineyards’ terroir, balanced and animated, complex, age-worthy and especially satisfying to drink. This is the earth, the weather, the plants and the winemaker in tune, together. No one style or clone or barrel dominates in any way – here is instead a full-on expression of the vineyard, from the creek to the cave.
For years, only the very best Cabernets made it to the Estate Reserve program. In fact, for the longest time more than half of the vineyard’s produce was sold off, and the very best kept for us. Today, these old vines are producing so much top quality Cabernet it is actually hard to sell it off to anyone. With the 2015 vintage we decided to bottle it as our first ever “non-reserve” Cabernet, elevating the quality of the Reserve program even higher.