Current releases
Olivia Brion Pinot Noir 2010
Heron Lake Vineyard, Wild Horse Valley
2010 is the second great vintage in a row for both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Both vintages had painfully low yields from our rocky hillside vineyard. The payoff came with great concentration, focused acidity, and perfect structure in both varietals. Winemaker's tasting notes:
Morello cherries start the parade of aromatics, followed by Mandarin orange peel and "grandma’s baking spices" (cardamom, clove, allspice). The flavors are "woodsy" (or sous bois, beneath the trees, as they say in Burgundy). This lovely Pinot is rich and complex without being at all heavy. Classic—everything in place. Very rich expansive flavors, this wine will hold and age for years.
The guiding principle for our winemaking is gentle fruit handling – not a seed broken!
After fermentation and gentle pressing, the wine is transferred by gravity into French oak barrels below in the underground cellar to be aged nineteen to twenty months.
This concentrated pinot really developed extra depth with this extended barrel aging.
• Download the Olivia Brion Pinot Noir 2010 PDF fact sheet.
• Place an order for wine.
Olivia Brion Chardonnay 2010
Heron Lake Vineyard, Wild Horse Valley
Winemaker's tasting notes: Nose like a bushel of ripe white peaches, followed by acacia blossoms, chamomile and an added note of pure butterscotch. The acidity and the prominent minerality drive the flavors, persisting through the mid- palate and the long finish
• Download the Olivia Brion Chardonnay 2010 PDF fact sheet.
• Place an order for wine.
Palladian Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Meadowood Lane Vineyard, St. Helena
The finest Palladian cabernet yet! 2007 has been considered one of the best cabernet vintages in the Napa Valley for some time. The summer gave us the best weather conditions for perfect fruit maturity--The Wine Spectator rated the vintage as "Classic".
Polished and refined. Tightly wound at first, gains depth and richness as it opens. Bright nose of cherry and black currants encircled by a hint of cigar-box cedar. Some delicate floral notes of violets from the cabernet franc influence. The palate is all cassis and kirsch with a little cocoa powder. The tannins are silky. Finishes long and clean – classical, balanced structure.
After careful hand sorting, and four to five days aqueous soak in one-ton bins, the whole berries are fermented cool (72 – 75°F) to preserve the fruit flavors. The cap is punched down every six hours to extract the desirable fine skin tannins and evaporate alcohol. Finished alcohol 13.9%. Pressing is very gentle, "one light, slow, squeeze". The wine is barreled down into French oak from several premium coopers for twenty-two to twenty-four months in our aging cave. We have released this outstanding wine after three years of additional bottle aging at the estate.
Seven years of organic farming methods are really paying off in the fruit quality. We are carrying the banner toward wines with moderate alcohol with great balance and structure. The Palladian vineyard is across the road from the Napa Reserve vineyard and next to Meadowood Country Club. 475 cases produced, estate bottled.
• Download the Palladian Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 PDF fact sheet.
• Place an order for wine.
