All fruit was sourced from our own vineyard – located within the coolest, westernmost reaches of the Casablanca Valley. A blend of three different vineyard blocks, facing north to north-west and from vines with an average age of 12 years. Sourced from hillside blocks planted on red clay over decomposed granite. The blocks used in this blend were cropped at an average of 4.2 tonnes per hectare (1.7 tons per acre). After a dry and relatively warm growing season, harvest was carried out by hand in 12kg picking cases on the 11th of May, 2015. After picking, the grapes were subjected to a whole cluster selection. This was followed by destemming (without crushing) and then an individual berry selection before being gravity fed to small open-top tanks. A 5-day cold soak (at 5ºC/41ºF) ensued after which time the must was warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts and fermented during 6 days with temperatures peaking at 32ºC/90ºF. During fermentation, the vats were hand-plunged twice daily in order to extract the ideal amount of tannin and color. Following the completion of fermentation, the must was subjected to an additional 4 days of post-fermentation maceration. The newly fermented wine was then drained to a mixture of new (45%) and second and third use (55%) French oak barrels for 11 months during which time it was racked twice: once in the spring (upon the completion of malolactic fermentation) and then once again in autumn shortly before bottling. After bottling the finished wine was carefully aged for three months in our cellar prior to release.