Immortal Slope

big beast of a wine... It’s one satisfying mouthful of a Cabernet today. - Jeb Dunnuck

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PLEASE NOTE:
All orders with GROUND shipping will be held until October 2022.
For temperature-controlled summer shipping options, please email kelsey@immortalestate.com.

 

2017 Immortal Slope

The 2017 is a powerful, dense wine whose immediate aromas are of black fruit and sweet spice. The wine cascades with effusive flavors of boysenberry, blackberry cordial, violets, spice cake, interwoven with sweet tobacco, brown sugar, black tea, clove, and raspberry leaf. Luciously rich, it entices with its sweet fruit, massive palate and rich complexity. Mountainside tannins unfold with air, but carry the fruit, weight and power Accessible in its youth, it will continue to evolve for decades. 

Variety: 97.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Petit Verdot 
Vineyard: 100% Immortal Estate Vineyard
Production: 2,300 cases - 180 Magnums

2017 Viticultural Season 

Significant  winter rains brought relief to both growers and vines throughout  the North Coast after several years of drought. Our work this growing season was focused on using  cover  crops  to dry  down  the vineyard after April rains and a cool spring, and managing  and  balancing  vigorous canopies to insure properly exposed  fruit. Despite the cool start and  moderate  summer,  the late season  turned warm a  few real heat spells, particularly over  labor  day  weekend. The  weather  remained  warm  through  September and October, and an extreme  windstorm  on  Sunday  night  October  8th,  coupled  with  downed  power lines, led to fires that ravaged the North Coast for weeks. The fires for us were a serious risk and concern, threatening  us from  North, South  and  East. We   had  planned to begin picking  the night of  the fires,  but our  crews  Aed to safety before the roads were closed and  the area was evacuated. Four  days later  we were able to safely access the vineyard. We were remarkably spared direct impact thanks to the efforts of the CDF and our terroir defining breezes from the Pacific Ocean, which was a continuous river of fresh

air keeping the smoke at bay. We restarted harvest in earnest, and continued to pick over the following 17 days while the fires burned on, watching  wind direction reports and  working with the CDF and  Sonoma County to maintain safe access. Our  final picks were made while helicopters drew water from our reservoir to subdue the burning forest on the adjacent hills. It comes as a profound surprise and joy that our wines were unaffected by smoke, and we can offer this glorious vintage.

Winemaking Notes

Vineyard blocks were selected for harvest by taste, selecting subsections of rows for  any harvest  day. The vineyard  was harvested into twelve lots over  two  and  a half  weeks, responding  to the varying  development  of different aspects, elevations and  rootstocks. Hand harvested and  meticulously  sorted, the fruit was allowed  to cold soak  prior  to fermentation and  further post fermentation maceration  on the skins for  a total of  30  to 40  days depending  on the lot. Given  the smoke blowing  through as a result of the nearby fires, we  processed  only when the air cleared, and dry ice was used to keep tanks under  positive pressure and the smoke out. Normally we introduce ambient air into the fermentations to moderate tannins and feed the yeast; understanding  the risk of this action, we used bottled air and compressed oxygen to feed the fermentations. The wines were pressed to 7 5% new french oak where they underwent malolactic fermentation. Individual barrels from eight lots were selected for the final blend. These wines were racked a total of three times during elevage and bottled unlined and unfiltered in July of 2020.

 

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