Mascot

Winter leading into the 2019 growing season delivered impressive rainfall (nearly 30 inches in the first four months) that lasted into May. The cool, wet spring delayed budbreak; yet this respite in a sequence of mostly arid years imbued the young vines with renewed energy. This potential for vigor required thorough and thoughtful pruning early in the season to ensure that energy would be most nobly directed: toward maturing the fruit. Early autumn was met with even and steady warmth, and picking commenced in mid-September, stretching across five and a half weeks. This ‘leisurely’ approach allowed for the collection of the fruit in precise, well-delineated passes, and the wine extracted from these berries confirmed our decision to, in places, wait a little longer. The wine is beautifully supple, with a broadly fanned aromatic spectrum and an effortless depth of fruit. From a center point on the palate, the 2019 vintage undulates outward in all directions. Gentle, velvety swells pause and fold in on themselves, their liquid whorls of refined tannin and gratifying acidity gliding across the surface of smooth curves before gradually retreating to reveal, on the finish, the burnished dimensions beneath.