The excellent 2021 vintage has delivered everything we love about great Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, including stunning aromas of black currant, tobacco leaf, black cherry, olive, white sage, blackberry liqueur and sweet French oak. Though lush and soft on the palate, the bright and balanced natural acidity brings length and freshness to the dark berry, cassis and anise flavors, and firm tannins hint at a long, impressive life ahead.
94 Points Wine Enthusiast- " A poerful and intense expression of Cabernet, this wine displays aromas of spiced balck plum, graphite and espresso on the nose, while the palate brings flavors of black cherry, currant, cocoa powder and pencil shavings in a firmly structured framework of oak. This needs time, but will evolve very nicely over the next decade. Drink 2035-2045".
Stuhlmuller Vineyards is located at the southern edge of the Alexander Valley, where it converges with two other highly regarded Sonoma County appellations, Chalk Hill and the Russian River Valley. On its eastern edge, the 150-acre vineyard borders the Russian River. Situated in a location that is part river benchlands and part hillside, the vineyard benefits from its alluvial gravel soils and the rockier soils of the hillside sections.
Both of the hillside blocks were hand-sorted and then individually fermented in stainless steel open-top fermenters. The wines were racked to our very finest French oak barrels for aging, with 60% of the oak being new. After twelve months, eight of the “free-run” barrels were selected, blended in tank, and then returned to barrels for an additional nine months of extended aging.
