Sorry, I’m reposting this as a number of the textual content was lacking from the unique submit
Undertake the tempo of nature: her secret is persistence. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’m typically requested, “Out of all of the wine you make, what’s your favourite?” I’ve all the time dodged the query, like one does when requested, “Who’s your favourite of your youngsters?” How may you presumably choose both?
However that is perhaps altering. Not with my youngsters, in fact. However sure, I feel I’ll go on file proper now with no less than crimson wine (I’m nonetheless within the honeymoon stage with my Vermentino, a very titillating Italian white). However with crimson wine, my 2022 Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon feels prefer it deserves that distinction. But it is a very new growth, coming greater than three years after that harvest was only a twinkle in my eye. And for the file—it was a really tough being pregnant!
Keep in mind the devastating “warmth dome” of early September 2022, adopted by that main rain occasion so audaciously (but precisely) named an “atmospheric river?” It threw into chaos the harvest season that 12 months, and examined the mettle of a younger (nicely, truly previous, however undoubtedly younger in expertise) winemaker. I used to be so shaken I wrote about it right here, then right here, then right here, after which right here, after which even once more right here.
If I have been to be fully trustworthy, after that just about two-year Herculean effort to rescue my 2022 classic I believed my Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon was destined to be commonplace. My different 2022 wines apart—which had, surprisingly and amazingly, risen from the ashes like wine-colored phoenices bedecked in golden medals and excessive level scores—my Cabernet Sauvignon remained aloof, too tight to precise promising aroma and style, too shy to trace at something memorable in mouthfeel and/or complexity, and positively too widespread to be a magnet for any Cab aficionado.
To start with I’d truly deliberate on making two Cabs, two barrels from a younger mountaintop winery east of Sonoma and two barrels from an older winery on the Valley ground simply north of Sonoma. However each tons appeared to have been compromised by the intense climate circumstances and in the long run I used to be compelled to mix them collectively within the hopes of mitigating feared shortcomings, and on the slim chance of activating that uncommon however actual wine equation 1 + 1 = 3, or 4, and even 5. It could actually occur.
However via most of élevage (barrel growing older) not a lot did occur. The wine remained clear and recent, and surprisingly balanced, however principally introverted and missing the typicity (the traits of a grape selection and the area the place it is grown) often related to Cabernet Sauvignon.
After 18 months within the barrel I bottled it. What else was I to do? I’d spent extra money on these valley ground grapes than I’d ever spent earlier than on fruit, and that was solely as a result of I’d shared a sensational bottle of wine with the winery proprietor who claimed it had been made out of his grapes. However I had develop into somewhat paranoid, conspiracy ideas hovering on the edges as I attempted to suss out why my wine didn’t style something like his. Why it didn’t, nicely, style like something.
As soon as within the bottle I squirreled it away into storage, resolved not to consider it for a 12 months or extra, whichever may mercifully come later. I used to be dissatisfied and rattled by the perceived lack of funding. However hey, each wine you make can’t be a masterpiece.
Quick ahead to October 2024. I entered my 2022 classic wines within the late season Harvest Truthful competitors in hopes of garnering somewhat advance consideration. Two of my reds gained Double-Gold Medals and one was additionally took dwelling a Finest in Class. And one way or the other my “unillustrious” Cabernet Sauvignon gained a Gold Medal of its personal.
Wait. What?!
Suspecting a judging anomaly or possibly a math error, I began together with it in each non-public and industrial tastings within the spring of 2025 to gauge response. And all of the sudden there was a brand new child on the town. Of us have been smitten and within the month of Could alone we offered practically 100 bottles. Then only a few weeks in the past we bought phrase that it had gained a Double-Gold Medal and 94-points within the OCFair Business Wine Competitors, the biggest competitors of California Wines!
So what occurred?
Properly, wine occurred, for one factor. And persistence gained out in the long term. However whereas these two, mutually inclusive forces collaborated, I wrestled a warmth dome that had winery sugars rising 1°Brix per day (a standard fee is extra like 1°Brix per week) leading to very excessive alcohol, and acid crashing and pH rising whereas physiological ripening floor to a halt. Then the rains got here and the rot and the mold ensued. When to choose? When to choose? When to choose?
After we lastly did choose the fermentations have been tyachacardic, too quick, too gradual. I didn’t water down (actually?—I didn’t perceive the method) so mixing turned crucial. So did acid provides and SO2 administration and MLF completion and lees trickery and racking, and VA monitoring, and supplemental oak extraction. The record goes on and on and each winemaker has memorized the script. The great ones can advert lib.
However the true magic with wine. The fact that humbles and generally shakes you to the core is that it turns into itself with or with out you. Exterior stresses play an enormous function, typically debilitating, however not all the time. Someday they’re the catalyst for greatness. As soon as within the barrel, and much more so within the bottle, the wine emerges, spurred on by the complicated chemical processes of integration and polymerization and inspired by micro-oxidation. I gained’t fake to know it, most chemists nonetheless don’t. However true miracles can occur and an unsightly duckling like my 2022 Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon can generally morph right into a stately swan.
Because it has.
All of a sudden there exists the highly effective nostril that’s Cabernet Sauvignon and the lengthy drawn out taste that favors the varietal. Solely mine is vivid and fruit ahead, void of the singular dimension and library stuffiness of Napa, but richly complicated with an extended, clean end. It’s as if the 2 wines that have been blended collectively lastly awoke from their sleep, found their remarkably enticing bedmates, made love, and have become one.
Please go to tinyvineyards.com and take a look at it. Purchase sufficient to time journey with it for some time. I promise you’ll develop into infatuated!
