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What We Say 2004 Reserve Petit Verdot
SUPERIOR WINE ALERT!
Today we are proud to bring you a stand-out Napa Petit Verdot from Napa Valley’s Stonegate Winery, known for their expertise in this unique varietal.
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Mission Codename: Kingdom’s Gate
Operative: Agent White
Objective: Secure a exceptional varietal Petit Verdot for our operatives.
Mission Status: Accomplished
Current Winery: Stonegate Winery
Wine Subject: 2004 Reserve Petit Verdot
Winemaker:
Backgrounder:
Petit Verdot is perhaps most famous as a secondary blending grape for the great wines of Bordeaux. Its intrinsic value is that it adds balance, mid palate structure and acidity to its brethren. When made into a purely varietal wine, the late ripening Petit Verdot presents its own unique quality and character with wines of exceptional aroma, structure and flavor. Today’s Petit Verdot is grown just east of Napa Valley’s prestigious Rutherford AVA.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Dark deep purple with a slightly inky dark core with blue and garnet hues along the edges. Slow medium thin legs cling to the edge of the glass when swirled showing a heavier consistency
Smell – Medium intensity with aromas of dusty ripe wild raspberry and blackberry layered over a touch of licorice. Floral violets, smoke and new oak round out the well developed nose of this wine.
Feel – The attack of this medium to full-bodied wine is smooth and dry with plush but firm tannins and balanced acidity that is sustained through to the back of the palate.
Taste – Round and very pleasant in its flavors with great ripe raspberry and blackberry, a distinct new oak quality, soft and not overpowering licorice, floral violet notes and a hint of spice and leather.
Finish – Clean with exceptional length, this wine’s structure and flavors linger and invite further exploration, and perhaps more importantly another sip!
Conclusion – The 2004 Reserve Petit Verdot is truly an exceptional expression of this often overlooked grape. Great aromas and flavors marked by both elegance and finesse but also the structure to stand up as a great food pairing wine.
Mission Report:
For nearly 36 years, Stonegate Winery has been a Napa Valley legend, known for producing the finest estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Verdot. While it led the charge in the early 1970s, today the winery is experiencing a resurgence. The exact details are highly classified, however.
Unless you have double top secret clearance, you won’t be able to read today’s complete mission report. Suffice it to say, all will be revealed – in time.
For now, you may content yourself with today’s exceptional 2004 Reserve Petit Verdot, a wine of wonderful balance, delicious flavors and layers of rich aromatics.
How were we able to procure an allotment of this incredible and mysterious wine? We could tell you, but, you know…
Meanwhile, please stay tuned, and expect another great Stonegate wine – and the full skinny on this mysterious winery – in the near future! And, take it from me, you do NOT want to miss out on today’s great selection. Its that amazing.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of Napa Valley’s Stonegate Winery can be seen in this satellite photo.
What the Winery Says
Stonegate Winery
Awards & Accolades:
Best of Class – 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
About This Wine:
The nose on the Petit Verdot is a rich opulent blend of creamy raspberry and cherry infused with a fresh violet fragrance. A great balance of toasted oak with firm acidity provide a platform for the blackberry and currant to play delightfully with the lavender and violet aromas. The wine finishes with a deliciously long and silky elegance. This wine is crafted in New World style that screams outdoor BBQ, Asian fusion cuisine, and the old favorites like steak and pasta. This wine can be enjoyed now for its rich fruit but will continue to age and develop complexity for 5-7 years.
Vintage: 2004 was a great year. A warm April following a cool March helped extend the vintage through to August with fewer than normal heat spikes. A long summer followed by a cooler fall extended the growing season. When the weather remained beautifully balmy and warm into October the grapes were allowed to extend their “hang time” allowing for further flavor development. The Petit Verdot was harvested fully mature and delivered in small bins in mid October.
Terroir: Our Petit Verdot is grown at our Wappo Vineyard, located in the foothills east of Rutherford. At an elevation of 1,000 feet, with a gentle western-facing slope, the days are warmer than on the Napa Valley floor. The vines carry an average 2.0 tons per acre from our Petit Verdot block.
Winemaking: While still cold the grapes were crushed and transferred to stainless steel fermenters. The must was cold soaked at 55 degrees for three days allowing for maximum extraction of color, flavor and body. After completing fermentation the wine was gently pressed, settled, and racked to French oak barrels, 55% new, for 21 months of aging. The wine was then bottled and aged an additional year prior to release.
About The Winery:
Stonegate, one of Napa Valley’s founding cult Cabernet wineries, has been producing highly prized, single vineyard, award winning wines since its establishment in 1973. The limited production, deep, robust and age worthy wines from Stonegate helped the Napa Valley appellation establish its dominance as one of the world’s top regions for outstanding red wines.
In 2007 a partnership of the Dolan and Hurst winemaking families purchased the brand and its inventories of the sought-after Reserve Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and Wappo Vineyard (Rutherford) Petite Verdot. With an uncompromising approach to excellence, Winemaker Phil Hurst – who grew up in the Valley – spares no expense in the procurement of premium Napa Valley grapes and the consistent production of super-small lots of luxurious, age-
worthy wines. The ownership team honors the provenance of Stonegate. Dolan and Hurst bring years of collaboration, wine industry experience and a deep environmental consciousness to invigorate this pioneering brand.
Philosophy: Wine Spectator proclaims the decade of the 1970s as the “Napa Valley Boom Years.” Stonegate Winery joined other pioneering wineries to produce world-class wines which sparked the resurgence of Napa Valley as a dominant contender in the global wine arena.
Focus: Stonegate’s ultra-premium portfolio focuses on Bordeaux varietals from specific blocks within its 199 acres of Napa Valley vineyards.
Location: Stonegate makes its wine at the Laird Family Estate facility on Hwy 29 & Oak Knoll Avenue and its offices are located in Napa, California.
Vineyards: Stonegate owns or controls 200 acres of Napa Valley vineyards including a steeply-terraced vineyard in Diamond Mountain and above the valley, at elevations of 1,000 ft., our other estate vineyards are located in Chiles Valley District of the Napa Valley.
Each block is a selection of vines that enjoy the same terroir and is carefully hand-farmed so that every aspect of the vine is suited to its terrain and micro-climate. Only the best blocks are selected. All fruit is hand-harvested in half-ton bins. Hand sorting in the vineyard ensures only superior quality fruit is reserved for our wines.
Portfolio: Diamond Mountain Reserve, Petit Verdot.
Production: Current: 2,000 cases of which approximately 75% are red Bordeaux varietal wines.
Technical Analysis:
Acidity: 0.76
Alcohol: 14.5%
Appellation: Napa Valley
Time In Oak: Two years in French Oak
Varietal: 97% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Merlot
Year: 2004
