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Our Cabernet Sauvignon is from the Baldinelli Vineyard which was planted in 1972 on St. George
rootstock. This is an old low bearing small berry/cluster clone. Yields are about 2-2 1/2 tons per acre. Our
growing season is longer and cooler than what many might assume. It is comparable in many ways to the
Howell Mountain region of the Napa Valley. Red, iron-laden soils of grainy decomposed granite. Warm
days moderated by afternoon Delta breezes and cool night air from the high Sierra peaks just 50 miles to
our East.
Closer to harvest as the days become shorter, fruit cooled overnight takes half the day to
warm again and matures slowly. Most of the grapes are fermented in 5 ton open top fermenters and handpunched.
The remainder are fermented in a 10 ton closed top tank where the cap is irrigated with a special
device during pumpovers. Lots are combined at a later date depending on the winemaker's discretion.
Aging takes place in 100% French Bordeaux barrels from Taransaud cooperage. They are thin-staved
Bordeaux-styled Center of France barrels and 50%-75% are brand new each year. The remainder of the
barrels are from the two previous years vintages. The wine is in barrel for two years prior to bottling in the
Fall of 2004. It was aged in bottle for an additional four years prior to its release in 2008.
Color is dark purple, with complex aromas of cedar, tobacco, and asian spicebox. The fruit is
blackberry/cassis with a pleasant St. Julien-like texture, mineral-infused flavors, and sappiness. The wine
has good balance, intensity, a plush texture, and length. It is a youngster now and slow to open, which
bodes well for age ability.
This is the third release of our popularly-priced California Cabernet Sauvignon. This 2002 has classic Cabernet blackberry/cassis fruit flavors and wonderful cedary spices with a nice touch of oak. It has beautiful balance and a sumptuous, juicy mouthfeel. This vintage is made from selected lots from our estate Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that did not fit into our final 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon bottling blend. In previous vintages we have sold-off this excess to several top Napa wineries. Since we have had great success with our Estate Cabernet program we have decided to start bottling this moderately-priced wine, as the quality is high and the wine distinctive mountain Cabernet characteristics. We aged the wine for 20 months in French oak barrels and it is bottled unfiltered. We think you will enjoy this Cabernet and the value it represents.
The ubiquitous Merlot has become one of the most popular and most put-down varietals of the grape world. The "soft machine alternative" to Cabernet Sauvignon gained popularity in the United States in the 1980's with brands like Duckhorn, Shafer, and Mantanzas Creek leading the pack. It soon became "the generic by-the-glass red varietal of denuded nature", that many received unknowingly or actually asked for, in bars across the nation. This bastardization and the dilution of it's quality when being made "on the cheap" from young over cropped vines often made the wine taste thin, sharp, and green. Ugh!
Our Merlot comes from a distinctive, low-yielding vineyard that was planted in 1972 in the heart of California's Shenandoah Valley. These mountain vines produce intensely-flavored fruit that create a wine that is rich, complex, and elegant. 1999 was a particularly cool year with the mid-October harvest being almost a month late. The wine exhibits characteristically St.-Émilion like styling with hints of cedar, exotic tea, and plush plummy berry fruit. Two week fermentation with a special Bordelaise yeast strain, all hand-punched in the vat, and 18 months in French cooperage. Bottled unfiltered. See what a real Merlot should taste like.
This is a beautiful, rich, but balanced Barbera. Although a late ripener, the Barbera matured to perfection
with low yields on October 3rd in 2003. Opulence, with a certain elemental juiciness, nuanced varietal
character, and a silky finish. It drinks with dense, layered complexity, and persistence. Stylistically similar
to the new wave barrique Barbera's being made in the Italy's Piedmont region. It is aged in 100% French
oak.
Our Barbera is turning a lot of heads and is the only Cal-Ital that we produce. It seems exceptional well
suited to the soils and climate of the Shenandoah Valley. Our Barbera fruit is grown on a South-facing
slope on the Cooper Ranch and the vineyard is about 25 years old. This is one of our most popular wines
in the tasting room at the winery.
Try it with most tomato preparations. It is great with pork, lamb, and rabbit.
We are excited about our 2006 EASTON Late Harvest Zinfandel from the Rinaldi Vineyard in the
Fiddletown appellation of Amador County. This is a historic site that dates to at least 1865 when it was called
the Cox Vineyard. A portion of the harvest lent itself to making a Late Harvest wine in the 2006 vintage. We left
one block of the vineyard to hang until the sugar reached 30° plus brix, but the wine still retains a sense of
style and balance without overt dehydrated Zinfandel flavors. Rich, blackberry and dark chocolate flavors with
an attractive white pepper spiciness that I like to get in most of my Zinfandels. We bottled it in 500 ml bottles
which seemed appropriate for a wine with 16% natural alcohol and about 5% residual sugar.
Another new product that we are excited about is our 2002 EASTON Late Harvest
Zinfandel from the Herbert-Cappelli Vineyard in El Dorado County. Marco Cappelli
(Swanson Vineyards) asked us if we wanted to try out his fruit after he purchased
the historic Herbert property near Somerset in 2002. We obliged and the fruit
lent itself to making a Late Harvest wine in the 2002 vintage. Picked ultra
ripe at 30 brix, the wine still retains a sense of style and balance without
overt dehydrated Zinfandel flavors. Rich, raspberry milk chocolate flavors
with an attractive spiciness that I like to get in most of my Zinfandels.
We bottled it in 500 ml bottles, which seemed appropriate for a wine with
16% natural alcohol and about 4% residual sugar.
This is the fourth release of our estate-bottled Zinfandel. The fruit can
originate from one of two estate vineyards surrounding the winery. The old
Dickson-Miller property and the Baldinelli property that was planted in the
early 1970's. We choose the best lots. Vines are head-trained and unirrigated.
The vineyard is rigorously suckered for proper cluster spacing and sun exposure
to get full flavor development.
Flavors are full, rich, smooth, and gutsy. The wine has huge brambly blackberry
fruit, big cedar, spicebox aromas and flavors. It has a smooth creamy finish
from aging in François Frères and Taransaud barrels (1/3 new).
2001 was a particularly great year in the Sierra Foothills and the Shenandoah
Valley. Our spring was cool, so fruit set was late. Harvest was dry. Hang
time was long. These vineyards were harvested in mid-October. We have bottled
the wine in our EASTON "Estate" package with its' distinctive,
but classic label design and heavy bottle.
These old vines barely provide a crop each year. The vineyard is about as
old as they come in California with vines dating to the original planting
in 1865. When you gaze on the vineyard on a cold Spring day after the vines
have been pruned, the thousands of stout, thickly trunked vines are not unlike
a amorphous Henry Moore sculpture, arms raised, pleading with the heavens
for enough water to grow for another year. This vineyard is farmed with simplicity:
pruning, plowing, and finally picking at the perfect time determined by our
winemaker. Every year the wines are different and a revelation. We do not
blend this wine with other Zinfandels in our cellar to make a consistent product.
EASTON Fiddletown Zinfandel is always 100% Zinfandel from the Rinaldi-Eschen
Vineyard.
This 2003 has thick brambly blackberry fruit with pepper, anise, clove, and
other exotic spices. Yields were an incredibly low 1 1/2 ton to the acre.
Fat and mouthfilling with great persistence on the palate. Like all our EASTON
Zinfandels, this wine was aged in exclusively French oak. This 2003 vintage will hold well for 5-10
years.
The is the one Zinfandel that we make in both 375ml and 750ml formats. We have had many requests from restaurants and specialty retailers for the 375ml size and we have chosen one of our most popular specific appellation bottlings for this purpose. Our 1999 Shenandoah Valley Zinfandel is dense and concentrated with dark berry fruit flavors and hints of cocoa and pepper spice in the aromas. The palate impression is rich and supple; the finish long and creamy. It has the distinctive flavors of our Amador terroir that make this region so special. Like all of our Zinfandel's, it is aged in 100% French oak cooperage.
This is the eleventh release of our popularly-priced Amador County Zinfandel. It is made from grapes that grow on our beautiful, rolling mountain sites that have the classic, vermilion-colored, Amador decomposed granite soil. The 2007 has full black cherry and blackberry fruit aromas with a beautiful balance and a big, sumptuous, and juicy mouth feel. It also presents complex spicy aromas,with a nice creamy texture derived from the 10 months time it receives in French oak barrels. This wine has become our popular, but serious cru Beaujolais-styled Zinfandel that has found its way on to many great restaurant lists across North America where it is often listed "by the glass". It is consistently rated one of the top Zinfandels in its class and one of the best value Zins available. Although drinkable now, it gains complexity with bottle age. This wine's release has become highly anticipated by many of our customers each year. We think this 2007 bottling is our best effort yet.
This is the tenth release of our popularly-priced Amador County Zinfandel. It is made from grapes that grow on our beautiful, rolling mountain sites that have the classic, vermilion-colored, Amador decomposed granite soil. The 2006 has full black cherry and blackberry fruit aromas with a beautiful balance and a big, sumptuous, and juicy mouthfeel. It also presents complex spicy aromas,with a nice creamy texture derived from the 10 months time it receives in French oak barrels. This wine has become our popular, but serious cru Beaujolais-styled Zinfandel that has found its way on to many great restaurant lists across North America where it is often listed "by the glass". It is consistently rated one of the top Zinfandels in its class and one of the best value Zins available. Although drinkable now, it gains complexity with bottle age. This wine's release has become highly anticipated by many of our customers each year. We think this 2006 bottling is our best effort yet. Our Zinfandel yields were low in 2006 and the resulting wines have great structure, flavor, and intensity.
House or "H" is our new fun, easy drinking everyday table wine composed of predominately Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Like the New Wave wines of the Languedoc of Southern France, it is made from these two great grape varieties. House is what we like to sip on informal occasions. It is a café wine, a picnic wine, a boating wine, a great luncheon wine, a skiing wine, a wine to enjoy when you want a delicious glass of wine, but you don't want to think too much about it. House complements most Mediterranean and Californian cooking and it works well with other full flavored foods. Have a bottle open on the counter to relax with after work when other beverages just won't do the trick!
Check it out! Come on over to our House!
This is the fourth release of our new Sauvignon Blanc, made from estate grapes grown at the Monarch
Mine Vineyard, overlooking the American River Canyon at 2,300 feet, near the town of Foresthill in Placer
County. We planted a four acre vineyard at this site to two different selections of Sauvignon Blanc: clone
#1 and the Musque clone. We cold ferment this wine in a stainless steel tank and then age it for nine
months in neutral French oak barrels on lees before bottling it in late May of 2007. The wine does not
undergo malolactic fermentation and therefore retains its' delicious crispness. The enchanting fruit
flavors suggest pineapple and melon and are complimented by a nice creamy mouthfeel. The wine
finishes with a brisk minerality.
It is the perfect foil for all seafood and absolutely satisfying as an aperitif.