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The Oakville District is the heart of Napa Valley and renown for its very finest Cabernet Sauvignon. And for good reason. Its gravelly soils, warm days and cool nights give this Bordeaux variety everything it needs to reach perfection. Our Cabernet is grown in the east side of appellation in very gravelly, nutrient poor soils. Our “Mise en place” Cabernet Sauvignon comes from a very special single vineyard site located on the extreme eastern side of the Oakville District abutting the Vaca Mountain Range. This sub-section of the Oakville AVA is renowned for superb, richly-textured Cabernet Sauvignon, including the likes of Dalle Valle, PlumpJack and Rudd. Terrain is characterized by steep hills which bask in warm, sunny afternoons offering an ideal growing environment. The vineyard soil profile is gravelly alluvium, eroded off the nearby mountains and covered by shallow gravelly loam. It is quite infertile and very well-drained, unlike the center-most sections of the appellation along Hwy 29. Planted in the early 1980's, clonal material includes 30 year-old heritage clones (likely from Beaulieu Block) as well as 4 and 337. Exemplary viticultural practices were employed in this mature site, including cane pruning, extensive shoot thinning, leaf pulling and fruit thinning at fruit set. After veraison, we again culled unevenly ripened bunches which reduced yield to less than 5 pounds per vine (@ 3.5 tons/acre).