The 2007 vintage in Napa Valley was a classic vintage throughout the valley, giving wines with good acids, deep color and concentrated flavors. It was a cool, moderate growing season with earlier bud break; bunches matured quickly and both berries and bunches looked bigger in the spring, but actually became small with intense flavors as harvest approached. We experienced some typical heat spikes in late August, causing multiple varieties to ripen at the same time and speed up harvest. The weather suddenly cooled throughout September and even rained lightly several days in October, and we picked the last of the Cabernet Sauvignon at our HL Vineyards in mid-October - one of our earliest harvests. But the grapes still showed mature, intense flavors, while the resulting alcohol was a little lower alcohol.

The most unique factors about the HL Vineyard are the rocky soil and N/E exposure, which really emphasizes the fruit; it’s basically a cool climate hillside vineyard giving the wines typical mountain fruit qualities with a little more acidity and finesse than other vineyards. The wines always show true natural fruit flavors, good natural acid balance and juicy qualities with out smothering the wine with oak. The 2007 E II Cabernet Sauvignon will show a difference from others as it evolves; even now it shows more mature Cabernet Sauvignon fruit flavors than any other vintage. It is a true example of the class of wines produced from the HL Vineyard – what the great wines give year after year, and how they evolve with time – and is closer in structure to the bigger HL wines.

Winemaker Michael Trujillo calls this wine "…probably the most complete example of the E II Cabernet Sauvignon that we have ever bottled. It’s one of the biggest vintages on the decade; the color is phenomenal and it has brightness and freshness, with a clean acid. It’s the best of both worlds, big and lush but nicely structured to preserve the hillside fruit. Across the board the numbers on this wine were stellar. We used over 50% new oak with more barrels from Taransaud.

The 2007 E II Cabernet Sauvignon is more classic than pretty – more like the great 1997 (plush) and 1999 (firm & rich) wines. It has a sold core and big fruit flavors but is still juicy. It opens in the glass as it airs, showing dark, dried cherry, cocoa and tobacco and even the richness of olive oil.

Take a nice slow breath and you smell sweet, caramel flavors, the broad base and great depth of this wine. It will evolve into more cherry/caramel and even richness of pepper as it ages. This wine is stuffed! It shows a little milk chocolate or cherry/chocolate with a signature slightly herbal (sweet chocolate mint) fruit from the cooler climate ‘Bottom 40’ part of the vineyard. There’s lots of sweet oak with a tannin structure prevalent of a vintage that will be there to hold up the fruit as it ages.

The prettiest nuances of this vintage are still to come – like all great vintages, the 2007 will only benefit from more time in the bottle to evolve and open up in the glass. The varietal flavors from the HL Vineyard are more complex than and not as one-dimensional as other vineyards and need time to develop in the bottle."