Wine Specs
Vintage
2008
Varietal
Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation
Oakville
Harvest Date
October 3 - 25, 2008
Aging
16 - 17 months in French oak (70% new, 30% once-used)
The 100-acre Martin Stelling Vineyard, located behind the winery in Oakville,
is the cornerstone of the Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon program. Planted on
some of the most beautiful, gravelly loam soil in the Napa Valley, the vineyard
is composed of two distinct areas. The lower portion uniformly produces
wines with supple, sweet tannins and bright, forward fruit. Halter Valley,
which is the extension of the vineyard that starts into the foothills of the
Mayacamas, is composed of gently rolling knolls. This section of the vineyard
includes more diverse individual blocks that provide wines of great tannin and
structure. This vineyard, together with a small contribution from the Sullenger
Vineyard at Nickel & Nickel, produces Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon.
90% Cabernet Sauvignon
6% Petit Verdot
4% Cabernet Franc
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
This wine offers intense aromas of ripe blackberry and boysenberry layered
with baking spices and licorice. The entry is full and juicy with a velvety
middle palate. Dark, mocha flavors emerge on the long finish with chewy,
coating tannins.
Vineyard Notes
The 2008 season started out with low winter rainfall, followed by a very dry and
cold spring. Napa Valley’s worst frost in 30 years resulted in reduced yields and
delayed ripening in the coldest pockets of our vineyards. However, our precision
farming enabled us to identify and isolate these sections. Summer and early
fall brought a few heat spikes, but it was a relatively mild ripening season for
Cabernet; its development was slow and steady, ensuring ideally evolved flavors
and tannins. A cool and fairly dry October allowed us to pick each block slowly,
sometimes with multiple passes, to harvest at optimum ripeness. The frostaffected sections were picked separately and declassified; only wines of optimal
ripeness and beautifully textured tannins were included in our blend.
Production Notes
We were able to achieve the concentrated flavors of juicy, black and purple fruit
along with the lush, velvety tannins of this vintage through a combination
of early pressing and extended maceration. Fifty percent of the lots stayed
on their skins for up to 63 days, allowing for slow and gentle tannin extraction
while the other half was pressed early to capture the bright fruit flavors.
Production
S k i n Co n t a c t
29 days, average
Other Notes
Release Date: February 2011
Di re c t o r o f Wi n ema k i n g
Dirk Hampson
