The Gala Mountain Vineyard sits above the Napa Valley on the slopes of Mt. George, just east of the city of Napa. This northwest facing vineyard was planted in 1992 on rocky volcanic bedrock with sandy topsoil and is cooled by the constant breezes from the San Pablo Bay. The vines are well drained, deep rooting & produce small clusters, which lend to the structure of the wine. This six acre vineyard was converted from organic to biodynamic farming in 2018 and is tended to by hand.
In 2018 on a trip to New York, we met a couple from California at RAW Wine who we are now lucky to call close friends. They told us about their vineyard in Napa in the mountains between Atlas Peak & Coombsville, and so upon returning home to California, we went to walk the vineyard and were very impressed. So when the opportunity came later in the year to work with this fruit, we jumped on it.
The wine was destemmed & fermented with its native yeasts in small open top fermenters and aged for sixteen months in neutral barrels. We used the same winemaking approach as all of our red wines, but this wine in particular displays the charm & intensity of mountain Cabernet from the Napa Valley: red licorice, golden raspberries & sassafras greet you in the glass. This wine carries all of this onto the palate as well: ripe blackberry juice, licorice & sarsaparilla -- all of the classic traits of Vaca Mountain Cabernet.
We are amazed at how much presence this wine has in its youth and are very excited to see it age for decades to come. Twenty-six barrels produced.