2019 Skipstone "Oliver's Blend", Alexander Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA

ABOUT THIS WINE:

Since the inaugural Skipstone vintage of 2005, their annual approach with Oliver’s Blend is to create a blend of Cabernet Sauvignons from up to 20 individual small lots. This Cabernet Sauvignon is then often embellished with small amounts of their other blending varietals to best showcase the vintage. With so many pockets of soil differentiation and exposures, Oliver’s Blend is a symphonic compilation of aroma and flavor. This, coupled with clonal diversity of multiple Cabernet clones throughout their hillside plantings, creates an exceptionally complex wine. Year after year, this is a wine of profound power and elegance.

With so many pockets of soil differentiation and exposures, Oliver’s Blend is a symphonic compilation of aroma and flavor. This, coupled with clonal diversity of multiple Cabernet clones throughout their hillside plantings, creates an exceptionally complex wine. Year after year, this is a wine of profound power and elegance.

For optimal drinking window, best enjoyed 2022-2040. If enjoying earlier, we recommend a 2 hour decant to let the wine reveal its full potential

2018 vintage began late, due to a cool and dry winter – conditions that persisted through the entirety of the growing season. The moderate heat throughout the summer and early fall provided optimal conditions for the steady ripening of the key color, tannin, and flavor compounds. A long hangtime was possible this year because there were none of the major heat spikes they have become accustomed to in recent decades. This provided optimal maturity of the essential phenolics while Brix accumulated slowly, and yielded perfectly healthy, fresh grapes at harvest. In the cellar, their grapes were treated gently, given extended maceration times to extract the lovely flavors and texture present in the grapes, and they incorporated a large percentage of native fermentations this year. The resulting wines made from this vintage are extraordinarily refined, exuding aromatic and textural depth that is immediately apparent in the glass.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER:

Skipstone is tucked between two stunning hillsides in the mountains above Alexander Valley. they aspire to perfection in every aspect of their wine growing and estate farming, drawing inspiration from the unparalleled potential and promise of the earth. Uncompromising in their standards of sustainability and treatment of the land, they are committed to nurturing the precious resource that is their 200 acre estate. Blessed by nature, they listen intently to the terroir of their vineyards, and in turn, their wines speak eloquently of their origin.