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"There’s nothing wrong with easy wines. But there’s also something decidedly right about difficult ones. Like demanding art, you’ve got to work to appreciate them. But when you do, the reward is great- and lasting."
From The Wine Spectator, July 31, 2005, page 36 "Taking It Not So Easy” by Matt Kramer
From Matt Kramer’s “New California Wine”, Running Press, 2004, page 165
Mayday, Mayday, two weeks of sunny, warm weather and all hell breaks loose at Wing Canyon! Finally the winery porch is dry enough to finish bottling the 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon. The labels go to print in a week then it’s time to start hand labeling 8000 bottles. In the winery, racking, topping and blending continue while Bill starts moving 40 barrels of 2002-3 from porch to winery. The vineyard is waking up and in need of pruning, replanting, grafting, rodent patrol and general maintenance, daily chores for Bill and his canine crew. But still we have plenty of time for the annual newsletter to let you know what a hard life we lead, surrounded by 112 acres of remote, peaceful, quiet, and beautiful SPACE.
Looking back on 2000, Bill’s journal entries include notes on the weather, a 5.2 earthquake with numerous aftershocks, and a rare lion sighting, but very little about harvest. I recall the grapes were beautiful (with great numbers) so we decided not to inoculate the juice for fermentation, with hopes that the wild yeast on the grapes would produce a wine with more interesting flavors. The fermentation went well, finishing dry in a couple of weeks.
When the 2000 cabernet went into barrel the world was a very different place. The last three years have seen rough changes all around. Nevertheless this wine soldiered silently along. After three years in barrel it has turned into a wonderful and friendly wine yielding flavors of ripe cherries, raspberries, and violets, with hints of vanilla, cinnamon and mulberry, then a depth and profundity appropriate for the millennium, as you ponder the good old 20th century. We find this wine dangerously easy to drink. Only 650 cases were produced.
The 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon (750ml) may be sold-out but not forgotten. The label appears above as a notice that a limited number of magnums are available. Lolita, our 2001 Merlot is also back, sexy and “luscious and willing to show”.From “Gourmet” November 1997 “Vines Among the Redwoods” By Gerald Asher (re: Mt. Veeder Appellation)
From “ The Financial Tines”, London, “Weekend” May3-4, 1997
“A Serious Paternity Suit, Jancis Robinson Considers the Revelations Over Cabernet Sauvignon’s Parentage” by Jancis Robinson