2001 SANGIOVESE
SONOMA COUNTY - SEGHESIO VINEYARDS

Tasting Notes: This wine opens with lovely strawberry, then fans out with cassis, tomato and rhubarb. The texture is soft and lean. These elements make Sangiovese a wonderful wine with tomato-based dishes and piquant dishes, such as Veal Scaloppini and basil-spiced pesto. Cabernet likes the fats in foods while Sangiovese relishes the leaner, spicier, more acidic foods.

Grapes: The Seghesio Vineyards of Geyserville produce Sangiovese that is refined and elegant, but have an unusual depth that is missing in many California Sangioveses. These grapes are from vines brought from Italy more than 100 years ago by the Seghesio family, who has had more than a century of experience growing Sangiovese in Sonoma County. 100% Sangiovese.

Vinification: The grapes were picked at 24º Brix on September 5, 2001. To capture and emphasize the delicate nature of Sangiovese, we limit the temperature during fermentation, use only older barrels (Seguin Moreau and François Frères), rather than new, and do not blend with Cabernet or other reds that tend to overwhelm delicate Sangiovese fruit.

Notes from Bob Long: 2001 was a very light yielding crop year for many of the North Coast reds. We harvested about half the usual crop and produced half our usual quantity. We feel this is the best Sangiovese we have made since beginning production in 1994, perhaps due in part to the low yield. We recommend decanting and warming it to room temperature before serving. We are finding that these wines will age quite nicely with five - eight years.

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