Tasting Notes: 

The nose opens with the easy confidence of a California summer evening — warm air scented with mint chocolate, red licorice, and sun-warmed berries. There’s a playful sweetness at first, like someone just unwrapped a handful of cherry candies, but it deepens quickly into crushed plum, cassis, and the green coolness of eucalyptus leaves drifting on a breeze through the vines.

On the palate, the wine moves with grace — supple and lively, more dancer than weightlifter. Red fruit leads the way: raspberry, cherry, a flicker of pomegranate brightness. The tannins are soft and powdery, like cocoa dust, lending just enough grip to remind you it’s still Cabernet at heart. A vein of acidity runs through it all, bright and refreshing, carrying the finish upward in a long, zesty arc.

It’s a Cabernet that speaks in quicksilver tones — youthful, buoyant, and honest — less about power than poise, more about sunlight than shadow. A wine that hums rather than shouts, and leaves you reaching for one more sip just to keep the song going.

Vineyard: The Voir Dire combines lots from several vineyards to give the truest expression of terroir diversity in Sonoma County. The grapes for the 2022 edition of this wine were sourced from the Star Springs Ranch in Alexander Valley (60%, 12% of which is Cabernet Franc), our Estate Vineyard (23%) in Dry Creek Valley and Monte Rosso Vineyard (17%) on Moon Mountain. Each offers a different soil type, micro-climate and/ or aspect which contributes to the complexity of the final blend.

Vintage: The 2022 growing season in Sonoma County began with a late spring and mild summer, fostering optimal conditions for early-ripening varieties. However, an unprecedented heatwave in early September challenged late-ripening grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, necessitating vigilant vineyard management to maintain fruit integrity. Cabernet Sauvignon lots for this wine were harvested from September 21st through October 15th. 

Winemaking: The grapes were de-stemmed into small open-top tanks for a long cold soak to encourage development of color before fermentation began spontaneously with wild yeast. Fermentation continued without the addition of any chemicals or enzymes, aided only by the heat of the sun and gravity-fed "pump-overs" once per day. After pressing the wine went into 100% neutral French oak barriques, aged for 30 months, and was sterile filtered prior to bottling.