2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Songbook

Director of winemaking and viticulture Remi Cohen described 2011 as "an elegant, pretty year in which the hillside vineyards did especially well." She left the wines on their heavy lees to enrich their middle palates. In 2012, on the other hand, she thinned the vines early in order to keep the crop level normal and noted that Cliff Lede was the first producer to pick fruit in Oakville's To Kalon vineyard. Alcohol levels for the very rich 2012s will be in the mid-15s. By the way, the 2012s had not yet been racked at the time of my March visit. Winemaker Chris Tynan suggested that they may only be racked for the assemblage. (My samples of the '12s were representative blends.)

Cliff Lede is going to be an interesting property to watch over the coming years. Winemaker Kale Anderson left for Pahlmeyer and was replaced by Chris Tynan, formerly Assistant Winemaker at Colgin, who works closely with viticulturist Remi Cohen. Lede has moved all winemaking in house, which also means Philippe Melka is no longer working on the wines. Some of the changes the new team plans to implement are slightly earlier harvest dates and a reduction of barrel fermentations.

Cliff Lede has taken a bold new direction in the past year, ending his relationships with consulting enologists Michel Rolland and Philippe Melka and putting his wines solely in the hands of his full-time team, including director of winemaking and viticulture Remi Cohen and new winemaker Jack Tynan. According to estate president Jack Bittner, the objective is to create a legacy by having all the knowledge and experience in-house. Alcohol levels here tend to be high, and the estate is now keeping more foliage on the vines to moderate sun exposure. In 2011, Cliff Lede added a more efficient optical sorter, which senses color and is therefore able to eliminate underripe grapes (as well as shriveled berries in hot years). The result, according to Bittner, was that the estate could compress the 2011 harvest and do a better job picking. "The challenge in 2011 was to preserve fruit," said winemaker Tynan. "There was less emphasis on extraction and our fermentations were shorter and cooler, with fewer punchdowns." Lede's many vineyard blocks, most of them around the winery on the Yountville Crossroad and others just across the Silverado Trail, are named after classic rock tunes, with the late '60s featured prominently.