Harvest Date September 25 & 28

Growing Season 2006 was slightly cooler overall than 2005 and began with delayed bud break due to long, wet spring. The weather warmed in May, continuing through summer and into fall to provide the extended growing season needed for fruit to ripen fully. Valdez Vineyard was harvested on September 25 & 28, escaping mid-harvest rains that arrived the following week.

Winemaking

• Hand-harvested grapes
• Fermented in small, open-top stainless steel fermentors with indigenous yeasts
• 5 to 6 day cold soak, 18 days total maceration
• Hand-punched cap
• Concurrent, spontaneous malolactic fermentation in barrels; 4 months to completion
• Aged 16 months in French oak barrels: Francois Freres, Cadus, Damy, Remond; 74% new
• Unblended, unfined and unfiltered; bottled January 2008