Release Letter:

At a recent event I did for the Moon Mountain District association, I had the privilege to sit on a panel with other wonderful producers from the appellation. What struck me most about the wines presented was how different the wines produced from the different types of soil in the appellation were from each other, despite all possessing a common mountain wildness to them. The wines from sites planted on basalt had tons of power, structure, and remarkable weight. In contrast, the wines from the iron-rich red-series soils had structure but more finesse and perfume as well. All were quite delicious, but it was an interesting takeaway and certainly helped my own evolving understanding of the vineyards perched high above Sonoma Valley to the east. Our block of Monte Rosso Cabernet sits just above our old Semillon section on the south side of the ranch. Planted on the vivid red soils that make this site so famous on an old school quad trellising system (for more on this, check out our video here), this block makes powerful, mountain fruit-driven wines that also have lots of perfume and elegance lurking underneath. In 2021, yields were quite reduced and the wine was as dark as I have ever seen after just a few days in tank. Pumped over in a small, two-ton, oak open-top tank, the wine began to pick up wonderful perfume to go along with this weight as the fermentation continued. The finished wine, for me, is about as classic Monte Rosso Cabernet as it gets.

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