THE RAVENS - 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from our single, estate vineyard. Yields are kept down and organically farmed to achieve the best expression of the fruit. The grapes are hand-harvested and naturally fermented with the vineyard's indigenous yeast.
The 2018 vintage has beautiful structure, fine but present tannin, and is highly age-worthy.
The 2018 RAVENS is a blend of the same juice aged in two different vessels for almost two years: 80% French oak barrels made by small-production coopers, and 20% Tuscan terra-cotta amphora. It is bottled unfiltered and unfined.
While approachable now, the tannins innate to our wine would benefit from aging and promise a long drinking window.
Our bottles are hand-dipped in a soft wax, whose color recalls the bark of the beloved Manzanita trees that characterize our Calistoga landscape.
AARON POTT'S TASTING NOTES:
NOSE: Espresso, bacon, nutmeg, cola, black cherry, bay, blueberry, violets, iodine, leather, new motor oil, walnut, coconut.
PALATE: Big attack and flavor. Plum, cherry, nutmeg, cocoa, espresso.
FINISH: Espresso, cherries, plum, cocoa, tobacco.
AARON POTT'S ART DIRECTION:
For Aaron, the 2018 RAVENS transported him back to a childhood trip to Venice. The city was flooding, experiencing one its «alta marea» submersions. Unperturbed, Aaron strapped plastic bags over his shoes, waded to the nearest cafe, redolent of coffee, tobacco and pastries, and returned with steaming espresso to his mother.
Anthony Perliss took this recollection as a departure for painting the label, featuring a backward gazing raven among a streaming flow, of water or perhaps coffee.