2019 Stout Family Cabernet Sauvignon
Introducing our much-anticipated 2019 vintage.
Born on the heels of the outstanding 2018 vintage in Napa. It was a long warm summer growing season with very little rainfall. An Indian Summer was what many were calling it. Short Crop is what I call it. The clusters were small, and crop yields were exceptionally low, less than half of the 2018 abundant vintage. The small berries gave the wine concentration and a richer color. Our normal Oakville vineyard had half of its normal output, so Tom (Rinaldi) reached out to a friend on Mt Veeder who had additional Cabernet Sauvignon we could add to our short vintage.
Beauty and the Beast
The result is a blend of Napa Cabernet vineyards - beauty (Oakville) and the beast (Mt Veeder).
The opulence of the juicy rich round Cabernet of Oakville, blended with the rich mineral driven fruit from Mt Veeder gives this vintage an extra layer of fruit and tannins, not normally found in our Cabernet.
It is a good winemaking blend of me – the tannin lover (beast) and Tom, the elegant juicy rounded one (beauty).
The wine is 65% Oakville and 30% Mt Veeder Cabernets, with a small amount of Stages Leap Petite Verdot 3 %, and 2% Merlot from Coombsville – all Napa.
The wine was aged in 40% new French oak barrels from four different coopers/producers.
Why four different barrels makers?
In the 2017 vintage we experimented with several new barrel makers to see what diversity it might add to our usually barrel producers flavor profile. and feel in love with the results. It also made us think about the different elements each could bring to the taste profile of our finished wine.
Funny story – but true – is that the barrel producer we were using was our least favorite in the barrel samplings. We decided to blend without our usual barrels and see what our final blend would taste like. The final blend with, and without, those barrels, Drum roll…... –surprise, yes, the blend with all of the barrels was better than without. Goes to show……. The result was – we like the blend using all of the barrels. This created the wine we have today, giving the finished wine an extra layer of oak, spice, and velvety texture.
We love it. We hope you enjoy this vintage of Cabernet!