2016 The Insider, Paso Robles

90 points
Wine Enthusiast, October 2019

The name "The Insider" comes from the confidentiality agreement we had to sign in order to purchase the grapes from the vines of a well known winery producing world class wines. With our insider connections and knowledge we are able to offer you a wine of exceptional quality and pedigree at a price that will amaze.

This big cab has a deep, dark plum color with purple hues with nice viscosity illustrating the dense weight and alcohol percent. The aromas are classic Bordeaux notes such as blueberry, huckleberry, pencil lead and cassis notes. The palate is ripe and rich with supple, silky black cherry and blueberry flavors. The mid palate showcases the ripe fruit and integrated French oak.

After opening up, the wine reveals a vibrant Cabernet Sauvignon tannin structure which showcases both its backbone and age-ability while finishing with rich plummy and ripe cherry fruit and cherry vanilla on the finish.

This wine has been carefully crafted from grapes grown within 4 subdistricts in the Paso Robles AVA: Adelaida, Templeton Gap, Creston and Santa Margarita Ranch. We vinify each of these vineyards separately and process and ferment each independently to bring the best out of each vineyard. After a 3-4 day cold soak we ferment each Cabernet lot over 3 daily pumpovers prolonging the skin contact until 14 days have elapsed. We then rack each onto French oak and put the wines through Malo-Lactic fermentation. Once the wine is racked, sulfured and laid to rest in 2 year old French oak for a period of 15 months it is then transferred into brand new French oak barrels for an additional 3 months. During its life in the cellar it is racked 4 times. Once the final blend has been made the final (5th rack) combines our selection of each vineyard which is clearly expressed in the bottle.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon
3,000 cases

2016
San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, January 2019
BRONZE MEDAL

2015
88 points
Wine Enthusiast Magazine, 12/17

2014
90 points
Tasting Panel 03/17

“Smooth and lush with dense plum, blackberry and
cassis fruit; lush and balanced; long and earthy.”

89 points
Wine Enthusiast Magazine, 02/17