Our 2012 Reserve Cuvee is blend of our Estate Zinfandel, Old Vine Carignane, and Estate Petite Sirah. I held back, or reserved, the majority of our Estate Zinfandel in 2012 as the backbone for this blend. I added Old Vine Carignane, from the Evangelho Vineyard, and Estate Petite Sirah until I felt we had found a perfect balance. The blend rested in a combination of American (Virginia), French, and Hungarian barrels (40% new) for 26 months before hand-bottling.

This year is marked as an outstanding year for wine grape growing, and for being the first year of a three year drought on the central coast of California. 2012 was a year that winemakers dream about, with nearly perfect growing weather, textbook timing, and stunning fruit that produced, in the Toucan Vineyard, a full crop of well balanced and age-worthy wines. In 2012, our Estate Zinfandel and Estate Petite Sirah were harvested between Sept. 22^nd and October 7^th, the Old Vine Carignane was harvested from the 120+ year old Evangelho vineyard on Sept. 18^th.

Our 2012 is our third Cuvee release. Our first release was from 2006 and called the Toucan Cuvee, and the second was a Club release from 2008 called Redemption. This third is named Reserve Cuvee to mark the fact that we committed the majority of our stellar 2012 production to this one bottling. The 2012 Reserve Cuvee also sports a new label, a watercolor of our estate vineyard and the surrounding hills painted by our friend Margareta Lund.

Our 2012 Reserve Cuvee is the perfect blend, balanced with complex fruit, and another of our wines that work perfectly with food. Bigger, richer, and more complex than our 2006 Cuvee and less fruit forward than our 2008 Redemption, this wine will develop for many years in the bottle. Drink 2015 - 2022.

Harvest:        Sept. 22^nd – Oct. 7^th

Bottled:         November, 2014

Acid:            .8TA 3.31pH

Alcohol:         15.3%

Release:        230 cases