BRION 2002 CABERNET SAUVIGNON, NAPA VALLEY

Tasting Notes

The wines color is a brilliant deep red with purple hues. Gracefully rich, smooth and concentrated with aromas of lush blueberry and cassis, the fruit core is wrapped in complex vanilla, coffee, caramel, tobacco, and spice box nuances. The pure, dense fruit is accented with pretty violet, anise, and toasty oak notes while the supply sweet tannins endow the wine with voluptuous texture, all finishing in a long alluring aftertaste. Beautiful now, will age well through the decade. Best from 2007-2012.

Vineyards

Our Cabernet Grapes came from the The Bennet 1st Street Vineyard in Coombsville, a southerly appellation of Napa Valley. The vineyard, although staying warm and dry, is generally a little cooler than many Napa Valley vineyards and therefore allows more hang-time for the grapes. This brings greater concentration and layering to the finished wine. The vineyard soil is rocky loam which provides good drainage and low nutrient concentration. Under these stresses the vines work hard to produce a limited amount of fruit.

Our Merlot came from the Caldwell Vineyard, which is also located in Napa's Coombsville appelation. The northwestern exposure of the vineyard moderates daytime temperatures and extends the sun exposure into the late afternoon. The Merlot develops a rich ripe character that compliments the more structured and nuanced Cabernet.

Weather

2002 was a challenging vintage with a generally cool growing season, lack of spring rain and excessive heat at harvest. Rainfall was right at average for the season, but most came in November-December. Vine stress and very small berry size led to a very low-yield crop.

Winemaking

The grapes came in small berried and deep black-blue and loaded with sugar. Following a 3 day cold soak, the fermentation took 7 days followed by a 35 day extended maceration. After which the wine was pressed and transferred to small French Oak barrels for aging. The wine was bottled in summer 2004 after 20 months maturation in barrel and further aged in bottle for an additional year.

General Info

Compositon: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot
Appellation: 100% Napa Valley
Vineyards: Bennet-Cabernet-Blocks 6 and 8, 337/15 Clones Caldwell-Merlot-Block 14
Harvested: October 2002
Winemaker: Mario Monticelli
Barrel Program: 20 Months in 80% new French Oak
Alcohol: 14.2%
Bottled: July 2004
Production: 211 cases