Comparing vintage growing conditions from one year to the next always reminds us that there is never really a “norm” in farming and the 1999 growing season in the Napa Valley was a case in point; a cool to mild year that produced a larger crop than 1998, but still a smaller crop than most previous vintages. The lovely warm weather that extended from September through October gave the vines a chance to extend maturation, offering a fantastic balance between ripeness and acid.

Our grapes are always hand-sorted at the crusher; nothing that isn’t grape or isn’t ripe gets into the tank! Even at the crusher, the juice was incredibly rich and dark with big, ripe fruit aromas and exceptional balance between ripeness and acid; a good sign of another excellent vintage.

The 1999 H L Cabernet Sauvignon has intense fruit characteristics typical of Napa Valley’s hillside vineyards. “I think this is the best vintage of this vineyard I’ve ever worked with”, says winemaker Mike Trujillo. “The most exciting thing for me is that these 1999 wines are built to go the long run. It is a classic vintage, not fat and overly ripe, but opulent and graceful and just keeps giving.”

The nose is cedary and spicy and full of vibrant, forward dark fruits. We used primarily new, tight-grained French Taransaud barrels with a small percentage of Nadalie for a sweet oak component.

This wine shows lots of black fruit, black pepper, plum, ripe blueberry and spice character indicative of our hillside vineyard, with a suggestion of black licorice and bittersweet chocolate. Much like the tremendous 1991 vintage, this 1999 has great balance that should continue to evolve in the bottle for 8 to 10 years. It will be hard to hold onto this wine long enough to find out!