Howell at the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Knoll Vineyard

Day of Harvest 10/14/13
Brix at Harvest 26.8
Clone: UCD7
Days on skins: 38
pH 3.71
TA 5.3 g/L
alcohol 14.9%
residual sugar <0.02g/L

This wine is a made exclusively from the UCD 7 clone of Cabernet Sauvignon grown in mineral ash and decomposed volcanic rock. The fruit was hand selected, clusters were sorted prior to destemming, and the berries were sorted after destemming to remove any imperfect fruit. This small lot underwent native fermentation in an open-top tank, managed with hand punch downs and a long extended maceration. The new wine was racked into carefully selected new French oak barrels and aged for twenty months before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Deep blue-red in hue, the wines aroma's are of black raspberry, cherry, hibiscus, smoke, and spice. Focused and mineral, cherry and currant flavors saturate the palate and are joined by pencil-lead, sweet mint, and cedar. The wine finishes with fine-structured tannins, espresso and dark fruit. This full-bodied Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon should drink well for a decade or more, revealing more as it ages.