Wine Available:
Red Blend, Napa Valley
I am pleased to offer you the 2015 Cave Dog red wine, once again produced from the vines which I formerly used to make Bourriquot. Planted for me in 1993, this Napa Valley site is a unique combination of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I continue to pursue elegance and complexity with these two varieties, to make wines that evolve with grace to become intricate but remain fresh.
2015 brought a warmer Summer and early Fall than the previous year, though by no means hot in our moderate end of Napa Valley. It was also the last year of our long drought here, and this clearly limited the vines’ production—down about 25% from 2014. Surprisingly, the vines yielded slightly more in favor of Cabernet Franc this year, arriving at a balance of 58% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Franc.
This coalescence of events worked some magic that I rarely have seen in the 24 years I’ve been working this vineyard: the Merlot and Cabernet Franc achieved ripeness at the same time! So I decided to do what any adventuresome Cave Dog would do and crushed them together into the same open-top tank. Nature’s little secret here is a process called “co-pigmentation,” the structures of the two varieties bonding in ways that they can’t by later blending. It tends to produce rounder, more supple wines, with flavors married earlier in the wine’s life, and that is what it did with this 2015.
While there is plenty of structure to the 2015 Cave Dog, it hides beneath a patina of ripe red fruits and just peeks out in the finish enough to keep the wine fresh. The alcohol is actually slightly lower this year (14.0%), and this too helps the sense of vitality. If any of you remember the 2004 Bourriquot, this wine will remind you of it.
A number of people have asked me, what’s the story behind the name, Cave Dog? So here it is: Since 1983, I have had the privilege of sharing my space and running the vineyards with a family of Golden Retrievers. This began in 1978, when I met a marvelous Golden pup named Montrachet, owned by my friend John Williams at Glenora Winery in New York’s Finger Lakes region. John moved out with “Shay” to Napa Valley, founding Frog’s Leap Winery, and in 1983 I moved from teaching at UCLA to living in Napa and teaching at UC Davis. Shay’s first litter of pups (with mate Romanee) was too tempting, and in November of 1983, we brought lovely Gevrey Chambertin (“Shamber”) into our home. Since then, we’ve also had his pup Mazis Chambertin and his niece Beze in our lives. Beze is now 11 and still acting like a puppy.
Mazis often reminded his humans of dogs’ wolfish origins by curling up in anything resembling a cave, and by rubbing his body up against everything in his home to “mark” it as his own. This lupine behavior led us to call him “cave dog.” One day I had Mazis in the winery, and he was getting into something he shouldn’t (as he often did), and I yelled over to him, “Hey Cave Dog, get over here!” One of my worthy cellar crew heard it and said, “’Cave Dog’? That’s a better name than ‘cellar rat’! I’m using that!” So it stuck: A Cave Dog is one who works in the wine cellar. But it always implies to me someone who explores the deep places and who, like a Golden Retriever, rejoices in being alive.
Varieties: 58% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Franc, Beau Terroir Vineyard, Blocks D & F
Harvest: September 13, 2015
Alcohol: 14.0%
Aging: 16 months in 225-liter French oak, 40% new
Bottled 212 cases, February 2017
