2024 Tasting Notes
Vintage Notes
From early morning pruning in the beginning of the year, to hours of handwork needed to keep canopy and fruit managed throughout the season, this 2024 wine is the culmination of 15 winery teams' efforts throughout harvest.
The 2024 growing season began with steady, average winter rainfall and a return to warmer conditions following the cool, wet 2023 vintage. April brought cool temperatures and scattered showers, with budbreak occurring in line with historical norms. Cool and wet weather persisted into early May before warmer temperatures and sunshine arrived mid-month. By mid-May, dry and sunny conditions supported an even bloom throughout the valley. The classic summer, characterized by our region's warm days, cool nights, and mild conditions, provided ideal, low-stress ripening conditions. Harvest began at near typical timing in early September. The most notable weather event occurred in early October, when a seven-day heatwave brought the hottest temperatures of the year. Luckily, the Stags Leap District's vintners' fruit was off the vine prior to the excessive heat.
Tasting Notes
Shuffling gracefully between fruit and spice, savory and sweet, this wine boasts mixed berry compote, slate, and vanilla cream fragrances. A secondary gust of rough-grained leather and cinnamon spice segues into a palate stocked neatly with mouth-filling tannin. Flavors of Santa Rosa plum and cocoa nib lend a richness to the wine, which finishes in a pleasing, chewy manner. A deeply purple hued wine, this cabernet sauvignon spans the fruit spectrum, with black-to-blue components on the nose and red-to-blue on the palate. Extended cellar aging will provide the collector a significant benefit, softening the wine's acidity and dense tannin profile, and providing balance to the nose and palate by unveiling tertiary aromatics of cedar and cigar humidor to temper the floral and fruit notes. While this wine will continue to evolve in bottle and patience rewarded, the Stags Leap District's classic character of round, soft tannins, balanced fruit and acidity, and luxurious mouthfeel, could entice one to a satisfying sneak peek upon release.
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