The grapes for this wine were sourced from several vineyards - three in Dry Creek Valley and one in Knights Valley at 1000' elevation. Although the vines range in age from 6 to 15 years old, they were cropped lightly to produce highly concentrated, flavorful fruit. Before inoculation, each lot was cold soaked for five days to extract as much color and flavor as possible. At approximately 5 brix, the components were pressed off to new French oak to finish fermentation in barrel. This technique leads to much better integration of wine and oak. After 20 months in barrel, it was bottled unfined and unfiltered in July 2004.