Tasting Notes

Never one to shyly blend in with the crowd, this wine’s depth and boisterousness is its most notable strength. With deep hues of ripe cherry layered with mulberry and crushed blackberry with underlying savory notes of roasted peppers, kalamata olive, and tobacco leaf. Characteristic of Santa Cruz, there is a definitive herbaceous tone with notes of Earl Grey tea and dried mountain sage, offering a very welcome wild side. The palate is defined by its solid tannins, bright natural acidity, and graphite-like minerality with a deep, dark chocolate finish.

Winemaking Notes

Small lot fermentations in 4-6 ton open top fermenters with at least thrice daily pumpovers for cap management. As with all of our Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons, after finishing primary fermentation, the wine is allowed to sit on its skins for up to a month prior to basket pressing. Aged for 18 months in 60% new French oak.

The Vineyards

This year’s Martin Ray Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the distinguished mountaintop home of Beauregard’s Bald Mountain Vineyard. Beauregard Vineyard is a very small plot on the south face of Ben Lomond Mountain, made famous by its legacy during the 1971 Judgment of Paris. The site produces intense fruit from small, compact clusters thanks to the ever-present marine influence and rare, white sandy soil. The vineyard enjoys morning and evening fog coupled with long growing seasons, allowing the grapes to reach maturity late in the season, with deep color, concentrated flavors and bright natural acidity.

The Vintage

The culmination of factors of another drought year in California surprised us with a wonderful vintage. An unseasonably dry and warm winter, which led to an early spring, forced the vines into bud break during peak frost season. However, the spring weather stayed mild during fruit set and led into a relatively warm summer which hastened ripening to unprecedented early harvest dates. Although the crop, overall, was lighter (and much earlier), than we’ve seen in several years, the outstanding quality of the fruit and resulting wines cannot be understated. HARVESTED SEPTEMBER 19TH