The vines here are up to 90 years old, making this one of the oldest plantings in Napa and Sonoma of Cabernet Sauvignon. A lot of vines were ripped out – either they were planted on the very drought resistant St George rootstock
Laura is inspired by 60s and 70s California Bordeaux blends, wines made by farmers who had more of a connection to the vineyard – by the mid 80s, things got bigger and oakier and lost their delicate elegance, and there was a segregation of the cellar and the vineyard. Higher yields in the early years led to lower alcohols.
Just like the rest of Coplan Vineyard, this is farmed organically, and the soils are characteristic Carneros “gumbo” soils (clay loam, and a ton of other random stuff). Laura does a slow and cool fermentation to maintain the delicate aromatics/not extract harsher tannins, and then leaves the grapes on the skins for an additional 2 weeks post-fermentation to get silkier tannins. The wine is then aged for 18 months in a mix of neutral and twice used Sylvain Signature barrels from Larkmead.