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The vineyard consists of more than 20 small, primarily southeast facing hillside blocks and has a 400 foot vertical rise. Rootstock and clone are selected to maximize the potential of each individual block, and trellising and pruning are adapted accordingly. Vineyard manager Mario Gutierrez' 26+ year association with Seavey vineyard allows him to understand the needs of each vine.
The same high level of care given in the vineyard continues at harvest and in the winemaking process. Grapes are handpicked at the prime level of ripeness and richness and transported to the winery in the baskets within 30 minutes of picking. The red grapes are hand sorted and destemmed before being gently lifted into small tanks for fermentation. The wine then ages for 18 to 19 months in French oak barrels, 35-50% new, until it is bottled on site. Only then does it leave the property.
The Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its classic Bordeaux styling, richness, and longevity, with some vintages achieving 30-40 years of cellaring potential. The winemaking includes long macerations with three years of barrel and bottle aging prior to release. Early vintages were 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, while more recent ones have included a richly concentrated Petit Verdot grown on the hillside.
The second label Caravina Cabernet Sauvignon initiated in 1999 is a handsome, opulent, very approachable wine upon release, still in small production of 800-1000 cases annually. To us Caravina means "dear vine." Wine critic, Robert Parker, has called the Seavey Vineyard Caravina, the best second label in Napa Valley.
While Seavey is known for crafting world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, we take great pride in our very small 400-500 annual case production of Merlot, which has in the last decade has developed a fan following of its own.
Seavey Vineyard's Chardonnay is made in a Burgundian Mersault style with arrested malolactic conversion at 0-25% so as to fully express the rich minerality and terroir of the vineyard. Barrel fermented, unfiltered, unfined and without cold-stabilizing tartrates...19th century approach to a 21st century wine.
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