Far Mountain 'Fission' Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
The Far Mountain 'Fission' Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from the Alta Vista vineyard, high up in the Moon Mountain District AVA, at 300 metres above sea level in the Sonoma Valley. The vines are fifty years old and have never been irrigated, both rare qualities in California, and continue to produce exceptional fruit at twice the age that most vines in California need to be replanted. This is helped by deep 20 to 40 feet root systems, the volcanic bedrock of decomposed granite on which the vines lie and the cooling, high-elevation breezes. This combination lends the Cabernet Sauvignon a defined structure with an elegant, graphite-mineral profile. At the winery, the Cabernet Sauvignon is handled extremely gently, more similarly to the way many producers handle Pinot Noir. The clusters were destemmed with the aim of keeping whole berries, and then transferred to open top fermenters. The wine was settled and macerated, without any forced extraction, to accentuate the intense fruit characters and velvety plushness of the grape tannins. It was then racked to oak barrels, 27% of which were new and the remaining between one and four-years-old, to be aged for one year. This wine displays intense and ripe black fruits along with earthy and mineral characters, and a seamless, silky flow through the mid-palate. A sappy concentration and powerful, yet refined tannins remain on the structured finish. The name Fission was ultimately chosen to reference the textural and mineral characteristics the volcanic soils bring to the wine.
