Herb Lamb Vineyards

The ripeness of the vintage shows an intensity of blackberry, cherry
and currant as well as sweet blueberry, with attractive soft tannins.
Our hillside soils offer a complexity of fruit flavors with hints of
chocolate, herbs, spice and leather. Paired with the sweetness of new
oak, richness of fruit extraction and firmness of the tannins, this
elegant wine should offer years of aging potential.

The 1997 HL Cabernet Sauvignon was our first release, and we were fortunate that the 1997
vintage was hailed as one of the finest of the decade in Napa Valley winemaking. Everything
seemed to go right, from the ideal weather cycle to the generous yields to the exceptional grape
quality, and gave us fully mature grapes with high extract and rich fruit flavors.
We had buckets of rain in 1997, causing floods throughout the Napa Valley for the second year in
a row. Then dry, warm spring weather prompted an early bud break in March. The summer
became a textbook season of morning fog and warm days, causing an earlier ripening than
anticipated. Grape growers, who usually took family vacations in August before harvest, suddenly
found themselves picking and hauling grapes instead. Two brief rainfalls in August and again in
September were followed by warmer fall weather which lengthened the growing season for later
ripening varieties like our Cabernet Sauvignon.

With only 50% new oak, the nose has an enticing component of red fruit highlighted by
toasty mocha and dried cherry notes. The 12% Merlot gives this wine softer fruit flavors and
an earlier approachability with raspberry, currant, cranberry, bright cherry and sage flavors,
but it still shows great Cabernet Sauvignon varietal expression. With alcohol under 14%, it
is a pretty and accessible wine with a plush mouthfeel, good oak and fruit balance and a
ripe, sweet cherry finish.

The 2016 vintage was a remarkable one for the Napa Valley, and perhaps the best vintage
that we have ever produced. Winemaker Michael Trujillo is passionate about this vintage.
“The aromatics are remarkable and continue to shine and develop in the bottle, with fruit
that jumps out of the glass. The wine was not fined, but only lightly filtered, showing off the
rich, juicy red fruit of black cherry, Mexican spices, Baker chocolate and forest floor
characteristics of the hillside Herb Lamb Vineyard. This wine shows amazing depth,
concentration and elegance, and is definitely cellar worthy