Cosecha 2006

Retail Price: $26

Blend: 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc, 12% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot

Production: 125 cases

Description: The 2006 Cosecha is a medium-bodied, ruby-colored wine with hints of raspberries and red currants on the nose. On the palate, the wine shows notes of leather, minerals, and vanilla which complement its smooth tannins.

Vintage: 2006 was a season of ups and downs in terms of weather. A warm and dry April preceded a normal month of May. June was bright and sunny through flowering, but the skies opened up for a record 6 inches of rain June 22nd and 23rd, thankfully after the flowering was finished. A typical July was followed by essentially no rain in a hot August, which had the potential to stress the vines; but September and October were cool, with about twice the normal rainfall, and the vines got the water they needed. The hot August weather and intermittent periods of sun in the fall were enough to ripen the fruit fully and produce complex, well-balanced wines.

Vineyard: The fruit for Cosecha is drawn from grapes grown across most of Black Ankle’s Vineyards, with aspects facing every direction but true North.

Fruit handling: Picking dates range from October 3 – 26, 2006. Each lot was hand picked by our crew, cooled overnight, hand sorted by cluster, destemmed and sorted again by hand to remove remaining stems and unripe berries. The whole berries were lightly crushed, gravity loaded into our temperature controlled stainless steel tanks, then immediately blended with juice from the remaining lots.

Vinification: Kept cool for one week to integrate the flavors of the different varieties, Cosecha is then co-fermented at 65 degrees for two weeks and racked into once used French oak barrels, with malolactic fermentation done in barrel. The wine spent a total of 16 months in barrel. It was topped and stirred weekly for 6 months, then topped bi-weekly until it was bottled, on April 2nd, 2008.