2013 Merlot Estate

Marty Clubb’s superb Ferguson vineyard, his portion of the huge SeVein project planted on windblown loess over fractured basalt at an altitude of nearly 1,500 feet, flowers early as the thin soil warms up quickly but ripens two weeks later than the nearby Seven Hills. And thus the Cabernet here was able to benefit from the cool nights in late September of '13, bringing what he said was “a lot of phenolic structure, more than you'd think from looking at the heat units for the year. The very warm August caused worries, but we got good color development due to cool nights. Some rain on September 15 cooled things off, and then we were in a cold cycle for the rest of the season. It was a mad rush to bring in the early-ripening fruit in 2013, but then everything stopped for several days, and after that we had a leisurely, drawn-out finish. Those are normally the best conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon but we saw healthy phenolics and structure even for our early-maturing fruit.” Clubb did some early leaf-stripping to acclimate the grapes to the sun shortly after the fruit set, and that led to bigger phenolic structure (the same was true in 2014 and 2015). “The 2013 reds are a bit broad-shouldered,” he said. Nearly all of these wines are in the range of 14.3% to 14.7% alcohol, although the labels state 14.5%.

When I asked Clubb how he was able to produce some very fresh 2015 white wines, he noted that “the worst of the heat really ended in mid-August and the days got back their diurnal shift. The heat in July really just suppresses berry growth.” Production here is now about 45,000 cases annually.