Cabernet Franc Home Ranch Vineyard, Clone ‘X’ - Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley (54%)
Merlot Knollwood Vineyard, Clone 181 - Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley (35%)
Syrah Knollwood Vineyard, Clone 470 and 174 - Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley (11%)

These three varietals were all harvested, crushed and fermented separately as individual lots. In addition to being sorted in the field, the clusters were sorted upon arrival at the winery to ensure the best possible fruit going into the fermenters. The Cabernet Franc and Merlot were fermented in tanks while the Syrah was fermented in small bins. Our fermentation regimen is tailored to each varietal, so the punch-down and pump-over schedule is different for each lot, but in general we strive to be more active with the fermenting cap in the first half of the fermentation than in the latter half. By doing this we are trying to selectively extract the fruit, aromas and color from the skins without over-extracting the tannins from the seeds. These lots were pressed shortly after dryness and racked to barrels for malolactic fermentation. The main lots were rough-blended in March 2009, and the finishing blends took place just prior to bottling.

All the wines were aged in French oak barrels for 26 months.