Our 2015 Single-Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons are going into bottle this month! We caught up with Nickel & Nickel Winemaker Darice Spinelli for a wine futures update on this small-but-mighty vintage.
Read on to discover her three biggest takeaways:
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Small but mighty is the truth! This vintage is very exclusive. Four of our Cabernets amounted to less than 13 barrels each. Some of these wines will not be around for more than a few months.
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Color and tannin were in beautiful balance this year. The 2015 Single-Vineyard Cabernets show a rich core concentration of fruit with a beautiful balance of acidity and tannin. This makes them delicious now but also age worthy.
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They showed vibrant, youthful fruit flavors and intense concentration during our Cabernet Futures Barrel Tasting last May. One year later they're more integrated and complete, with mature fruit flavors accented by rich, spicy oak.
The first set of 2015 vintage Single-Vineyard Cabernets goes into bottle on April 17 and we'll pull the last four out of barrel in May. Organization and precision are key to a successful bottling. We are gentle, careful and exacting, as great corks, proper temperatures, accurate fill heights and minimal exposure to oxygen are essential to ensuring there's no bottle to bottle variation.
In between the rapid-fire bottling schedule, we'll also be preparing our 2016 Single-Vineyard Cabernets for our upcoming Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Futures Barrel Tasting. Event day is May 13! It's one of our most anticipated annual events, as our members get their first glimpse of the recently harvested vintage. And this year we'll be debuting two brand new vineyards from two of Napa Valley's finest growing regions: Oakville and Calistoga. We'll share more on both soon. We have high expectations for all of the 2016 Nickel & Nickel Single-Vineyard Cabernets. They're showing great depth and richness for such young, young wines.
Learn More About our Cabernet Futures Here.
Never tasted wine out of barrel before? Or, you have, but you'd love some tasting tips from a pro? Discover our Winemaker's Keys to Tasting Cabernet Futures Here.
