Dark red garnet color. Complex aromatics of intense black fruits, with toast, mixed spice, cedar, tar, a touch of graphite and a hint of vanilla. Lush, yet structured character on the palate. This wine has a long finish, just when you think it’s gone a little surprise flavor and bite shows up at the end. A pleasantly serious Cabernet Sauvignon that reveals itself slowly with each sip.
Fruit was sourced Hedges (23%), Bel’Villa (55%), Jolet (10%) and Magdalena (10%) and Les Gosses (2%) vineyards. Fruit was harvested between 9/13 and 10/19. This wine was cold soaked overnight then inoculated with yeast, fermented for 7-10 days on skins while being pumped over twice daily before pressing to barrels, where it underwent malo-lactic fermenation. It was 100% barrel aged for 23 months in 49% new oak, 70% French and 30% American.
Harvest Notes: 2017 started off cold! January stayed in the upper teens for most of the month. Spring was damp and the hills had never been so green. Things started to heat up around July and August and by August we were surrounded by fires originating in Canada and all up and down the west coast. There was a blanket of smoke in the sky, which really dampened the suns UV rays. We think this actually helped the vines slow down ripening due to less photosynthesis taking place. We had a mild September and October which really stretched out the maturation period allowing flavors to develop nicely without Brix getting too high.
Cellaring: This wine is lovely now but, like other Red Mountain wines, should age well, probably peaking in 10 years, but still very drinkable at 15+ years old.
91 - Jeb Dunnuck
Sarah Hedges Goedhart
Experience Hedges wine all year round
