The Mascot, 2019

Winter leading into the 2019 growing season delivered impressive rainfall (nearly 30 inches in the first four months) that lasted into May. The cool, wet spring delayed budbreak; yet this respite in a sequence of mostly arid years imbued the young vines with renewed energy. This potential for vigor required thor- ough and thoughtful pruning, early in the season, to ensure that energy would be most nobly directed: to maturing the fruit. Early autumn was met with even and steady warmth, and picking commenced in mid-September and stretched across five and a half weeks. This “leisurely” approach allowed for collection of the fruit in precise, well-delineated passes, and the wine extracted from these berries confirmed our decision to, in places, wait a little longer. The wine is beautifully supple with a broadly fanned aromatic spectrum and an efortless depth of fruit. From a center point on the palate, the 2019 vintage undulates outward in all directions. Gentle, velvety swells pause and fold in on themselves, their liquid whorls of refined tannin and gratifying acidity gliding across the surface of smooth curves before retreating gradually to reveal, on the finish, the burnished dimensions beneath.