Single vineyard selection, rich & concentrated
Hank Wetzel produced AVV’s first wines in 1975 and the wine world quickly took notice of the elegant Cabernet Sauvignons from Alexander Valley. Thirty years later he decided to focus on the flavor profile that made the valley famous, releasing a single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon known as Alexander School Reserve. We continue that tradition with this newest release, a testament to AVV Winemaker Kevin Hall's skill and the Alexander Valley's unique ability to grow amazing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
We harvested the fruit for this vintage from a single block located south of the winery on Highway 128. The small, gently sloping hillside vineyard is planted to Clone 337. The vines produce tiny berries with intense color, rich flavors and incredible concentration. At harvest this lot impressed Winemaker Kevin Hall with deep color and big flavors.
The 2018 growing season began a bit cooler than the past few vintages, but we had a near perfect fruit set with moderate summer temperatures and relatively few heat spikes. The mild weather led to a longer hang time, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly. We harvested the single lot for this wine on September 26. After harvest the lot was de-stemmed, fermented, then aged in 65% new French oak barrels for 32 months.
Intense aromas of cassis, plum, black cherry, oak, vanilla, and a touch of chocolate fill the glass. This is a rich wine with dark fruit flavors of cassis, blackberry, black cherry, boysenberry, dark plum, vanilla and chocolate. This is a smooth wine, with well integrated silky tannins and a long finish.
ACCOLADES:
2018: 92 points - Decanter World Wine Awards
2018: 92 points & Gold Medal - Los Angeles Invitational Wine Challenge
2018: 91 points - James Suckling
2018: 91 points & Gold Medal - Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge
2018: Gold Medal - Hilton Head Island International Wine Competition
