The fruit, from old vines in the K Block, is picked early to retain energy. The grapes are hand harvested, whole cluster pressed (to minimize tannin extraction from the skins), and totally barrel fermented. What is different about this wine as compared to the Historic Vineyard Collection version is style.
In addition to the best fruit, we utilized new 350-liter french oak barrels from François Frères where the wine was aged 20 months, then bottled unfiltered. On a trip to Burgundy in 2013, Jim Clendenen stumbled on the 350-liter barrels at François Frères and decided these high cost, specially coopered barrels were necessary. We use these barrels for only our best wines
