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 wine is from the “old vines” Cabernet Sauvignon Block, a 11-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 2004 vintage got off to an early start due to dry, warm spring weather. The set was average, but the cluster counts were low. We had nice, hot summer weather, giving us early veraison (early/mid July). We had several “heat storms” during the early part of Fall, which accelerated the ripening process and brought on further maturity. This warmer setting was ideal to fully ripen the Cabernet fruit. The drier Summer and Fall conditions gave us higher tannins levels in the fruit, and therefore, blending in the Malbec and Merlot was key to balancing out the tannins. We began harvesting October 14 th and brought the last grapes in October 22nd. The average brix was a very ripe 27.3!

Winemaking

The grapes were crushed and de-stemmed. Fermentation took place in 8 days for the Cabernet and 13 days for the Merlot and Malbec. Early press of the Cabernet without the use of press fractions was necessary for tannin control. We made 3 individual Cabernet lots. They were all racked into new and 1-year-old French oak barrels. In Spring 2005 after allowing 60 days to fully scrutinize which lots would go into the blend, we did an early assemblage. It was quickly returned to mostly new French oak barrels and aged until Winter 2006. It was aged a total of 15 months and bottled in August 2006.