Candor

Winemaker’s Tasting Notes

I make this wine as an hommage to the classic cabs that brought Napa Valley to the world stage back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Like those wines this has aromas of fresh savory herbs, cigar box and black currant. At first the wine shows more fruit and a hint of toasted oak, but with time it blossoms into a spice-laden bouquet. The palate shows a tension of red and black fruits, teetering on well defined acid and tannin. This is the kind of cab I love to drink. It’s just so alluring, definitely not willing to give up the ghost until you’ve given its due.

Enjoy this wine between 2026 and 2042.

Winegrowing Approach

The Bear Flag Vineyard, located in Calistoga, sits at the base of the Mayacamas mountains. The full sun in the morning and shade in the late afternoon favors a longer growing season. And with limited sun exposure, this 37-year-old vineyard struggles to bear 1.5 tons per acre on a normal year and at the same time produces grapes that mature uniformly with lower sugar levels compared to most Cabernet vineyards here in Napa.

All the grapes were destemmed. We then chilled the juice and grapes for seven days before fermentation. We then warm things up in our stainless steel fermenter to about 88F. The fermentation lasted 8 days and we gently pressed the grapes 17 days after the harvest. The oak staves used to make our cabernet barrels are from the best forests in France and are aged extra long so that they are not too aggressive on the wine. We racked this wine off the sediment two times and after 24 months in the barrel, it was bottled without filtration.

Compared to our other cabernets, Candor is more of a classic Napa style; the fruit is not at the forefront, but rather in balance with the ample spice and velvety tannins. We call this wine Candor for its beautiful transparency of the site it comes from and the minimalist winemaking approach.

Technical Information

Elevation: 450 feet above sea level

Soil: Alluvial Mayacamas loam

Slope and Aspect: Valley floor, 2% slope, North-east facing

Farming: Sustainable, organic practices, managed by the winemaker

Fermentation: 100% destemmed, 7-day cold soak, 8-day fermentation, 2-day post-fermentation maceration

Aging: 80% new French oak barrels, racked twice

Production: 65 cases bottled February 15th, 2022, neither fined nor filtered

Alcohol: 14.4%