2005 Rive Droite Paradise Hills Vineyard

When Claude Blankiet hired consulting enologist Michel Rolland, he simply asked Rolland to help him make the best wine he could. The result will be a flagship Medoc blend based on cabernet sauvignon, and a second, merlot-based wine (Blankiet calls it "another wine," rather than a second wine) that will continue to be called Rive Droite. New winemaker Martha McClellan, who came aboard here just before the 2006 vintage, has crafted one of my early candidates for wine of the vintage. Her methods include extended maceration (the juice spends up to 60 days on the skins), later harvesting than was practiced here when Helen Turley made the wines, and some adjustments in the choice of barrels: whereas previous vintages were essentially made entirely in high-toast Taransaud barrels, McClelland has added some medium-toast barriques as well as some Darnajou barrels.

The Blankiets brought in the team of vineyard manager David Abreu and enologist Michel Rolland in 2006, and replaced winemaker Helen Turley with Martha McClellan before the 2006 harvest. McClellan, who is also winemaker for Sloan Family Winery, did more post-fermentation maceration in '06 and told me that her tendency is to pick a bit later than Turley did. The estate also sold off the open-top fermenters that Turley had used in previous vintages, in the belief that these tanks are much better suited to pinot noir than cabernet. I continue to find the Blankiet merlot to be one of the most characterful examples of this variety in California, although Claude Blankiet admitted that it's a lot easier to sell a wine with cabernet on the label. In fact, beginning with the 2005 release, this wine will be called Rive Droite, as it also contains some cabernet franc and sauvignon.