Scribe Winery 2021 'Atlas West' Cabernet Sauvignon, Atlas Peak, Napa Valley

Vineyard Notes: Before Scribe even had a name, we knew this remote site atop Atlas Peak in southern Napa Valley was where we wanted to grow Cabernet Sauvignon. The cold, bright mornings give way to sunny afternoons, but the vines are spared from the sun’s heat by gentle breezes coming off the San Pablo Bay. The soils here are dominated by red volcanic material with lots of flatrock, providing exceptional drainage. Yields are small and the fruit is intense and expressive, tasting of the mountain’s stoney red earth and dense thickets of California chaparral. We are gentle in the cellar to preserve this special terroir, restraining the use of new oak, fermenting with native yeast and bottling the wine unfined and unfiltered. It is Napa mountainside Cabernet through the Scribe lens, still tasting of its place above the fog line - bright, wild and pure.

On a west-facing slope, above the fog line, on the northern ridge of the Atlas Peak AVA, we farm Cabernet Sauvignon clones 412, 4, 8, and 337C planted mostly to rootstocks 3309C and 1103P.

Winemaking Notes: The grapes for this wine were fully destemmed and fermented in stainless steel tanks for up to 30 days. After pressing, the wine aged in 40% new and 60% neutral French oak barrels and large puncheons for 19 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Tasting Notes: Plum, Sage, Violet.