Pahlmeyer 2007 Proprietary Red Napa Valley

Pahlmeyer Winery

Tasting Notes

The 2007 Proprietary Red is at once restrained yet complex. Composed and intensely focused, it exhibits layer after layer of blackberry, cassis, anise, sweet cocoa, black cherry, blackberry preserves, extract, tar and cola. On the palate it is dense and concentrated with great weight and structure. Each layer lingers on and on. This wine is exceptional now and will only open further with time.” – Erin Green, Winemaker.

Wine Advocate

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #186, December 2009
"Sensational... There is no doubting its extraordinary bouquet of subtle smoked meats, oak, mountain wild flowers, blueberries, blackberries, coffee, and cassis. Super-rich and full-bodied with noticeable, but stunningly sweet tannins, it possesses a rare minerality and definition, characteristics that seem to be found across the board in Napa’s 2007s. This dense, powerful red needs 3-5 years of cellaring, and should have 25 years of life ahead of it." 96+ points
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Wine Spectator
September 30, 2010
"A rich, explosive style, packed with layers of currant, blackberry, wild berry and black cherry fruit woven together in a tight way. Full-bodied, turning supple and polished on the finish, where the fine-grained tannins are ripe and let the fruit flavors flow freely." –JL 95 points.

Type	Red
Varietal	Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec
Vintage	2007
Bottle size	750mL
Alcohol content	15.2%
Appellation	California – Napa Valley
Wine Advocate	99
Wine Enthusiast	--
Wine Spectator	95
International Wine Cellar	--

The Philosophy

Winemaking Notes
The grape clusters were hand-sorted, and once de-stemmed, the berries were sorted again by hand on the way to tank. After four to five days of pre-fermentation cold maceration in small open-top fermentors, the fruit began 100% native wild yeast fermentation. Two to three weeks later, the fruit was gently pressed and moved to barrel where it finished primary and secondary fermentations. The wine continued to age in 79% new French oak – a combination of Taransaud and St. Martin barrels – for eighteen months. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

"...My primary goal in sustainability is to achieve a balance that emphasizes preventing the problems from initiating and therefore avoiding as much of the treatment as possible."

- Amy Warnock, Viticulturist -

This quote reveals the forward thinking that is just now being adopted by modern practitioners of the ancient grapes-to-wine craft. Pahlmeyer's viticulturist, Amy Warnock, has embraced this holistic, rather than aggressive, approach and has seen the results. Growing balanced, ultra-premium winegrapes while incurring the least amount of environmental impact is the core mission of Pahlmeyer's sustainable winegrowing.