TOR Cabernet Sauvignon Cimarossa Vineyard, 2009

Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Production: 300 cases Release date: October 2011



Vintage



Almost perfection. Unlike the year before, frost was not an issue, weatherwas ideal for bud break, bloom and set. The growing season as a whole represents one of the most uniform I can remember with a minor heat spike in June, another in August, and none all the way thru harvest. The blemish came in the way of a mid-October wet storm, the tail end of a typhoon coming across the Pacific that dropped several inches of warm rain. Thankfully for us, Cimarossa had reached full maturity a week before the storm. We feel this is one of the best Cimarossa’s to date. It has the power of the 2006 and the elegance of 2007.

Vineyards “Cimarossa" means 'red hill top' in Italian, which aptly defines this very special hillside vineyard, planted on a volcanic cinder cone. The elevation is 2,100 feet and the soils are predominately red volcanic rock and dust. Not much can be cultivated on these steep hills besides vines and some olive trees (which produce my favorite California olive oil). This is a special place: the clusters are small, the berries are tiny, but the flavors are BIG!