Our mountain vines are dry farmed in shallow, rocky, low-vigor soil that add impressive depth and concentration of flavors to the wine. A mild, late spring and summer ensured that the mature vines had a healthy canopy for the grapes, which provided the perfect combination of sunlight and heat penetrating the grape clusters. These conditions allowed the grapes to reach full maturity in both flavor and structure. Harvest was completed the beginning of October.

This wine is composed of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with small amounts of Syrah and Petit Verdot. The hand harvested grapes enter the gravity flow winery and are hand sorted, then whole berries are gravity fed into tanks for fermenting before pressing. Individual lots are moved to barrels for malolactic fermentation, then blended and barrel aged for 19 months and aged an additional nine months in bottle, allowing for the perfect balance of fruit, tannin and oak.

Since 1985, Ferrari-Carano has been a leading producer of world class, nationally acclaimed wines. Vintage after vintage, the wines exhibit a remarkable consistency of style and elegance. Unlike their corporate competitors, Don and Rhonda Carano's uncompromising commitment to quality and excellence is a reflection of their desire to produce memorable wines that enhance the pleasures of gracious entertaining and not focus on short-term financial goals.

Ferrari-Carano vineyard practices are customized to match the particular characteristics of each vineyard to help the vines produce the best fruit possible, and to in turn, achieve the best wine possible.

Directed by Don Carano and orchestrated under the supervision of Steve Domenichelli, Director of Vineyard Operations, these practices are extremely labor intensive. Steve and his team implement irrigation and nutrient regimes, trellis system and canopy management, rootstock and clone combinations, and pruning and cane selection for each vineyard site and each block within a vineyard. Because of Sonoma County's diverse geological makeup, even within one vineyard parcel there may be several different types of soil with different degrees of nutrients for vines and water-holding capacity.

In addition, Steve and his team practice sustainable farming techniques, such as recycling organic matter for use as mulch in the vineyards, planting cover crops and other plant species to avoid soil erosion, add desirable nutrients back to the soil and to attract desirable insects, and integrating animals to naturally enhance biodiversity and nutrient recycling.