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. 22nd
and October 7th, the Old Vine Carignane was harvested from the
120+ year old Evangelho vineyard on Sept. 18th.
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.