2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

Vineyard 7 & 8 is in the midst of what looks like a pretty significant transition. Winemaker Martha McClellan took over with the 2014 harvest, so it is too soon to know exactly where this small, family-run estate is headed. Where it has been is obvious. For the last few years, the wines have been solid but not exciting nor particularly expressive of site. Big, oaky, chocolatey Cabernets can basically be made anywhere. But with its privileged position atop Spring Mountain, Vineyard 7 & 8 appears to have more potential than that. We will see. For now, McClellan has mixed up the selection of coopers, lowered toast levels and sought gentler extractions. The 2012s and 2013s were both made by Luc Morlet, while McClellan and proprietor Wes Steffens put together the final blends and bottled the wines, although by the time McClellan arrived those wines were essentially finished. At the end of the day, though, the ultimate responsibility for quality rests with the proprietors.

Vineyard 7 & 8 is currently undergoing a transition. Martha McClellan has taken over the winemaking reins from Luc Morlet with the 2014 harvest. Proprietors Wes Steffens and McClellan told me they plan to pick a little later than was the norm. Indeed, when I stopped by in September 2014, all the Cabernet was still on the vine, while a good portion of the harvest was well under way or finished elsewhere. Steffens and McClellan also plan to do more small lot fermentations in barrel and give the wines more time in oak than was previously the case. Going forward, the focus will be on estate grown fruit, which means the Russian River Chardonnay and Oakville Cabernets are gone from the lineup. It's great to see the Steffens family taking a greater role in the direction of their estate. Although Luc Morlet is a very talented winemaker, there is no question there is a certain sameness to his wines across his various projects, something that, to be fair, can also be the result of owners who don't really know what they want to achieve. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how things develop at Vineyard 7 & 8 in the coming years. In the past, these have always been fairly extracted Cabernets. My sense is these rugged hillside sites require considerable care.

Proprietor Wes Steffens and consulting winemaker Luc Morlet are making gorgeous wines. The Steffens family has spared no expense in building a state of the art facility at Vineyard 7&8, a reflection of their total commitment to quality. The new Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, which debuts in 2011, is a strong and promising complement to a range that today mostly consists of estate bottlings from the family's gorgeous hillside vineyards on Spring Mountain. Over the years, Morlet has moved to gentler pump overs versus punch downs and small amounts of barrel fermentations. It will be interesting to see how things develop at this small, family-run estate over the coming years.