Winemaker's Notes
A generous fruit set caught many growers and winemakers by surprise in 2000. From this, I can understand why an insensitive, formulaic approach to the vintage would fall short.
Since flavor development was rather slow this season, it took many more days on the vine than usual to get it just right. The Cabernet vines also had to have their leaf canopies ‘sculpted’ in a particular way to get enough sunlight on the fruit to develop ripe flavors and textures without becoming naked to the sometimes hot, beating sun. Fortunately, the slowly changing chemical balance of the resulting fruit was still great when the flavor and tannin ripeness I was looking for finally arrived.
Additionally, strict selection for blending our various Cabernet bottlings was also necessary to produce the kind of harmony and balance we value. This 2000 Scherrer Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is a substantial, sleek and refined wine. French coopers from the Bordeaux and Cognac regions as well as several other European and Canadian wine importers that have tasted through the cellar have consistently preferred this vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon to any other in our barrels or bottles. Many US wine merchants also share this love of this wine. It is more rounded and approachable in its youth than the past couple of vintages were at release, but it still has the stuffing to age and develop well into the future.
Judi Scherrer –
International Wine Cellar – February 2004
Red-ruby. Plum, cherry, red berries, leather, mulch, tobacco and nutty oak on the nose, along with a lightly vegetal element. Fairly supple and fleshy, with low-toned flavors similar to the aromas. Hints at tobacco leaf and flowers but could use a bit more delineation and lift. Finishes with smooth tannins and moderate length. Seems more gently extracted and less dry and green than the ’99 bottling. 86 Points. Stephen Tanzer