The Vineyard
Our Cherryblock Estate Vineyard derived its namesake from the cherry orchard our founder Samuele Sebastiani first planted on the property in 1919. The Cherryblock Estate soil is well-drained, reddish-brown, rocky volcanic ash, known as “Manzanita Series.” These “terra rosa” soils are well known throughout the world for producing red wines of intense color and depth. Most of the fruit for this blend is from the “old vines” Cabernet Sauvignon Block, a 9-acre block that was planted in 1962. August Sebastiani planted this parcel using only high quality “field selections” of Cabernet Sauvignon on phylloxera-resistant St. George rootstock. We also planted blocks of Merlot and Malbec on the estate, which make wonderful blending partners for the old vine Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Vintage
The 2003 vintage got off to a late start due to a record cold, wet April. May was also wet and cool, which further delayed the ripening cycle. Summer brought average temperatures, and we were finally rewarded with warmer than usual weather in the Fall. We had an especially hot October, so we took a gamble and let the fruit hang on the vine until the end of the month. Fortunately for us, the gamble paid off; we pulled in fully-ripened, opulent fruit before the rains. We had a very light crop this year, but we were quite pleased with the fruit we did bring in. We harvested October 30 th and October 31 st at an average brix of 24.5.

Winemaking
The grapes were crushed and de-stemmed. Fermentation took place in only 8 days in warmer than usual temperatures in order to compensate for the cool vintage. Malbec from the Mission Block was co-fermented with a younger block of Cabernet Sauvignon. We made three different lots of old vines Cabernet, and we selected the best and least tannic lot for the final Cherryblock blend. The assemblage took place the following Spring. The wine was re-racked three times and was aged in approximately 70% new French oak barrels for 16 months. The wine was bottled in May of 2005.