Cabernet Rose

Well Winter's gone, and here at DMP the Spring has brought us possibly the best wine we've ever made! Blessed with wonderful Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, last Fall be decided to go off the reservation and attempt a Cabernet Rose... Not just bleeding off a late harvest Cab, but sacrificing the real deal Clone 15 tonnage to make a fresh pressed Rose... The results, STUNNING! Comments from our Mentors (people who make the best wine in the world for a living) ranged from "You made THIS?" to "How many cases do you have?" to "Don't you wish you had 6 pallets of this stuff!" We'll take that all as an extreme compliment... : )

Harvest 2010

What a tough year to be a grape grower in the Napa Valley! Mid-season rain and mildew, followed by a brutal heatwave, followed by cool non-ripening weather and now rain... A lot of winemakers are truly earning their money this harvest! For me the question was do I really need another couple hundred cases of red wine in the pipeline... Not really... The answer was to try my hand at another dry classic Rose. Much like the '08 Rose of Pinot Noir that everyone loved to the point there's only a handful of bottles left!

So this year something with a new twist... Using Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to make a Cabernet Rose! Grapes were harvested first week of October and the pressed juice is almost through primary fermentation... If all goes well we'll be bottling Cabernet Rose this Spring!!

Summer 2010

Summer has finally rolled into the Napa Valley... It seemed like Spring took the year off and we went straight from Winter to Summer! Our '07 Cabernet and Syrah and our '09 Rose of Syrah are in the bottles. The reds to bottle age for another year, the Rose is perfect right now and has already made an appearance or two on warm evening BBQ's...

Speaking of the Rose... It ended up a deep ruby color, slightly sweet (about 2% residual sugar) and pushing 15% alcohol! It is a killer Rose, and has paired wonderfully with spicy BBQ and Asian dishes!

The '09 Cab and Syrah are barrel aging and slated for bottling in another 18 months.

The Next Level

09 Harvest and Crush is through and everything is shaping up to be the best year ever for Napa's premier Tuff Shed winery! The Howell Mountain Beatty Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon and the Truchard Carneros Syrah is progressing sinfully well in the new french barrels we invested in this year. The big surprise is the Rose of Syrah that's just finishing fermentation... Light ruby colored with intense citrus and grapefruit flavors! Insane for hot Summer evenings on the patio...

The New Year

It's not that 2008 sucked... We did get a fantastic Rose of Pinot Noir in "the barrel". It's just that things were so hectic that we haven't had time to bottle the '06 Cab and Syrah yet. So full speed ahead towards the bottling party. I'm trying to decide on bottles. Do we go with the huge elegant heavy bottles that scream "this is important wine" or do we go green?? What do you think?