2003 Bourriquot Red Wine Napa Valley

Michael Havens described his 2004 crop as "very small, due to shatter," and noted that although some fruit was picked during the early September heat spell, most came in later, under more temperate conditions. "We actually began to get shriveling of the merlot grapes before the veraison," he explained, "so we were already in a triage situation at the time of harvest:we had to decide what to pick and what to leave on the vines. The blocks of vines that normally do well in cool years really cratered, while some late blocks in Hudson Vineyard did very well. "In general, the 2004s will be "juicy crowd-pleasers," Havens concludes. Havens's special syrah bottling from the superb Hudson TT block is potentially among the finest examples of the variety to date from this producer, and a standout for California syrah.

Michael Havens describes the 2003s as possessing finer-grained tannins than the 2002s, with the skins even riper.Wines from these two years have similar pHs, but the 2004s will be bottled with lower pHs, as the grapes ripened very quickly, with less loss of acidity.Havens continues to use micro-oxidation in place of racking, saying that his objective is "to bring oxygen to the wines rather than the wines to oxygen."He racks once, 6 to 12 months after the vintage, to blend the lots from new and used barrels, then again only in preparation for the bottling.The top 2002 bottlings here are unusually structured, backward wines that really call for six or seven years of cellaring.