Estate Notes

Pellet Estate produces Chardonnay from the Sunchase Vineyard, and Cabernet Sauvignon from grapes grown exclusively in our historic Pellet Vineyard®, a site that has been producing grapes for over 150 years. The Pellet Vineyard’s origin begins in 1859, when pioneer winemaker Henry Alphonse Pellet was hired by John Patchett to make wine from his grapes near the city of Napa. Charles Krug had also begun to make wine in 1858, and Henry Pellet became the second commercial wine maker in Napa County. Formally established in 1863, the Pellet Vineyard was among the first vineyards in Napa Valley intended for producing grapes for wine for consumers at large, rather than family & friends. In 1863, Pellet purchased 45 acres of land south of the town of St. Helena next to his neighbor, Dr. G.B. Crane, and planted 38 acres in vineyards. Our label depicts the dawn of the age of electrification, the era when Pellet illuminated the path towards modern viticultural and winemaking methodology, and with it, the high quality and age-worthy wines that define Napa Valley.

Vintage Notes

2012 was a blockbuster near-perfect vintage year, yielding a crop of spectacular fruit that produced a high-structure wine, and should stand out for decades to come. Summer and fall had warm temperatures, but no notable heat waves, which in turn permitted the grapes to reach a very even ripeness. We picked the Cabernet over three days under truly the most ideal conditions in mid-October, and expect 2012 will turn out to be a new pinnacle for our Estate.

Winemaking Notes

We hand sorted our grapes both prior to and after de-stemming, and following a four day whole berry maceration and cold soak, we began primary fermentation. After nearly three weeks, the wine was gently pressed-off and racked to 75% new Darnajou and Tarransaud 36 month-aged tight grain French Oak barrels to complete a slow secondary fermentation for another few months. The intense fruit profile and high tannin structure resulted in us deviating from our prior two year’s 22 month barrel aging, as we felt an extra 3 months in barrel would not add significance to the wine’s characteristics - it already had the best possible balance of fruit, tannins and oak. After 17 months in barrel, we blended the final wine at the beginning of March and returned the wine to barrel for an additional two months to allow the flavors and components of the individual varietals to marry. This wine will be bottle aged for nearly 18 months before its fall 2015 release.