Gemstone Heritage Selection Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville 2021 750ml

"The Heritage Selection Estate Cabernet Sauvignon exemplifies the rich depth and complexity derived from our vineyard's 16 distinct heritage clones. With a pronounced fruit-forward profile, this wine is luxurious and dense, offering an array of intriguing flavors from our vineyard’s diverse terroirs. Each micro-block of the vineyard is vinified separately from harvest to barrel. This approach allows us to explore the myriad possibilities in winemaking and viticulture, resulting in the unmistakable layers of complexity that define Gemstone Vineyard wines. This opulent, opaque ruby-purple wine offers exuberant flavors of black berry fruits, black mission fig, dried plum, cappuccino dusted with dark cocoa, savory wild fennel, and the hallmark crushed gravel and mineral component of Gemstone vineyard. Full-bodied, with an impressive wealth of sweet blackberry fruit, the wine finishes robust and lengthy, with the kind of structure that promises beautiful development for the next 15+ years.

We practice sustainable farming on our estate vineyard, meticulously tending to the closely spaced rows by hand throughout the year. During the autumn season, our dedicated team hand-picks the grapes in the cool morning air and sorts the fruit twice—first as whole clusters and then as individual berries after destemming. Following a period of cold maceration, the grapes undergo fermentation with naturally occurring wild yeasts for three to four weeks. Upon completion of the primary fermentation, we gently press the grapes directly into barrels for a secondary malolactic fermentation, assuring for a balanced integration of fruit and oak. The wine then matures in barrels for approximately 20 months in 80% new French oak, including Baron, Darnajou, Ermitage and Taransaud. The wine was racked and bottled unfiltered and unfined, allowing the true essence of the terroir to shine through."