2019 Kathryn Kennedy Small Lot Santa Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon

Medium dark – Claret Ruby color
Like smelling a far off wildflower field… subtle and soft perfectly ripe blackberry, warm earth (and some Brett) ideal herbal aromas recall a OS Bordeaux wine.
Dried cranberry, milk chocolate, the nose of this vintage is not super powerful but is very complex and pleasurable.
Perfect weight in the mouth… juicy me- dium bodied but with substance and suffi- cient fine tannin for mid-range cellar devel- opment

This 2019 from the Santa Cruz Mountains is a counterpoint to the overblown Cabernets of Napa Valley and Pasa Robles. Here you have something closer to a classic European red…control, sophistication and ability to pair with dinner over a longer relaxed eve- ning. In other words; a more classic style
of Cabernet Sauvignon. This is what the Santa Cruz Mountains can do best…

World class mountain terroir combined with micro-managed vineyard care leads to the highest quality Cabernet Sauvignon raw materials. This wine was vinified using the same small scale techniques we employ for our other great Cabs. Fermented in open top vats with hand punch downs, then aged in a com- bination of American and French oak barrels.

2019 comes out of our multi faceted reset to methods and goals for Small Lot Cabernet
• Less extractive fermentation and aging techniques.
• 11 month barrel aging regime.
• More proactive tannin management during barrel aging.
• Screw caps (because I’ve had enough of cork taint casting a shadow on my hard earned reputation).
Has this changed the wines character? Undoubtedly, but it’s my opinion that those changes have been for the better… improved drinkability at the time it’s ac- tually on the market as well as improved pairing with food.