Tasting Notes 
A deep, concentrated wine with fresh blackberry, dark cherry and red currant. Expressive and balanced, with dark fruit flavors persisting across a long, generous finish.

Vintage 
Due to an unusual spring heat wave just before bloom, berries were smaller-than-average in 2007, adding concentration and flavor to the grapes. Good set after bloom, ideal summer conditions, followed by the Columbia Valley’s typical fall weather pattern of warm days and cool nights, ripened grapes slowly and evenly. The resulting wines have excellent natural acidity and deep, intense flavor. 

Vineyards
The Columbia Valley is a diverse growing region that provides a wide range of fruit expression by variety allowing the winemaker to craft rich, multi-layered wines by blending grapes from unique vineyards throughout the region.   Vineyard sources which give this wine its richness and complexity include the winery's estate vineyard Stillwater Creek and other such well-known sites as Alder Ridge Vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills and Klipsun Vineyard on Red Mountain.

Winemaking
• A combination of punch downs and pumpovers were used to extract color and flavor during the early stages of fermentation
• Fermentation was finished in barrels to integrate the fruit and oak
• Gravity-racked every three months to soften and clarify the wine
• Aged 18 months in both new and one-year-old oak barrels, predominantely French oak

Blend - 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc; 1% Petit Verdot

Case Production - 3,964 cases

Alcohol - 14.4%

pH - 3.66

Total Acidity - 0.55 g/100 ml


Mike Januik, Winemaker